[PEN-L:297] Re: South Africa pension-stripping stalled

[Rosser Jr, John Barkley]

     It is a rather curious business that the nations of 
East Asia that are dominated by ethnic Han Chinese have so 
far avoided the worst crashes of the region, despite being 
under some severe pressure in some cases.  I am referring 
to China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Singapore, to be precise.  
One possible explanation that Francis Fukuyama would like 
is the claim that in Chinese societies there is more of an 
emphasis on families and family-controlled firms rather 
than the broader groupism that one finds in Japan and 
Korea.  This arguably has led to a less concentrated 
industrial structure which may have helped the resilience 
of these economies.  This argument is especially relevant 
when comparing Taiwan and Korea, although the resilience of 
China is clearly a different ball game.
Barkley Rosser
On Fri, 29 May 1998 09:23:21 +0800 Anthony D'costa 
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:

> Dennis Redmond writes:
> 
> ...snip....
> 
> Asia has *no* strong welfare states, pathetically low wages, miserable
> working
> conditions, politicans completely dominated by big business, and vicious
> Governments which deregulated markets just like the IMF said they should.
> In short, a neoliberal wet dream -- and it utterly failed. Why?
> In the bad old days, East Asia had powerful state-developmental
> institutions which partially compensation for these things; the
> Nationalist regime in Taiwan kept income redistribution pretty equal,
> instituted progressive land reform, and had lots of state ownership of key
> enterprises. The state also regulated financial markets very carefully,
> and made sure investment got funneled into industry instead of finance. 
> 
> ------------------------
> I am not so sure "pathetically low wages" is correct.  If Japan is included
> in East Asia (which it is if one is to talk about the East Asian crisis)
> then wages cannot be considered low.  By no means Korean wages have been
> low (today in US$ terms yes).  The Taiwan case is truly puzzling because we
> do not hear nor have I read about a Taiwan crisis in the larger East Asian
> crisis although virtually all countries in the region have witnessed
> depreciating currencies.
> 
> I am in general agreement with the rest of the post.
> 
> Anthony D'costa  
> 

-- 
Rosser Jr, John Barkley
[EMAIL PROTECTED]