On Tue, 3 Feb 1998, john gulick wrote:
> More schizoid Clintonian politics -- do we want E. Asia to produce less
> surplus value and realize more surplus value, a la Clinton's "get tough"
> attacks on Japanese "neo-mercantilism," or do we want them to produce
> more surplus value and realize less surplus value, so that we can bail
> out the U.S.' commercial banks which flushed so much short-term hot
> finance K into E. Asia, and so we can buy out E. Asian firms at rock-
> bottom prices ?
South Korea owes most of its debt to EU and Japanese banks, so our good
friends over at Deutsche Bank and Tokyo-Mitsubishi Bank will
be deciding South Korea's fate very shortly. In a way, they don't have
much of a choice -- if they let the place go under, 11% of the world's
credit superstructure will implode. Ka-BOOOM. If they roll over the loans
and let the Koreans export their way out of the mess, not only do they get
their money back, they get to see the Americans take the brunt of the
Korean export surge straight on the chin.
-- Dennis
