Marty, your Korean story is fascinating. 55% in irregular employment. Where in the world is the good news. China is growing in the most perverse ways. Other places are stagnating. We already discussed the outsized US consumption today.
Usually, there is a miracle economy that looks to be the wave of the future. Is it China. I recall hearing Milton Friedman in a private conversation gloating about opening up China, whose excess employment would drive labor costs down world-wide. On Wed, Jul 20, 2005 at 03:40:24PM -0700, Martin Hart-Landsberg wrote: > Significantly in Korea, where about 55 percent of the labor force is now > irregular, South Korean firms have largely stopped buying new > equipment for their South Korean operations. Before the crisis, the > yearly growth rate of investment in machinery in the manufacturing sector > was regularly over 20 percent. It fell to 0 percent in 1999, 0.5 percent > in 2000, and then -5.9 percent in 2001 and -4.9 percent in 2002. While > the rate of investment turned positive in 2003 and 2004, the recovery has > been quite modest, 0.6 percent and 3.2 percent respectively. To put this > trend in perspective, South Korean manufacturing companies spent a total > of 74.4 trillion won in new equipment and plants in 2004, which was 4.3 > percent less than the 77.7 trillion won they spent in 1996. One > consequence is that employment in manufacturing is now on the decline. > Of course Korean foreign direct investment in China is soaring. > -- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University Chico, CA 95929 Tel. 530-898-5321 E-Mail michael at ecst.csuchico.edu
