here's the abstract from the second paper listed below:
>This paper evaluates the neoliberal economic restructuring process implemented in Korea following the 1997 Asian financial crisis. We first argue that the austerity macroeconomic policy of late 1997 and early 1998 was the main cause of the economic collapse in 1998, and that the decision of the IMF and President Kim Dae Jung to impose a radical neoliberal transformation of financial markets and large industrial firms in the depressed conditions of 1998, though defensible on political grounds, made the failure of these reforms virtually inevitable. A detailed analysis of the macro economy, labor markets, financial markets, and nonfinancial firms in Korea in the past three and one-half years shows that neoliberal restructuring has created a vicious cycle in which a perpetually weak financial sector fails to provide the capital needed for real sector growth, investment and financial robustness, while real sector financial fragility continuously weakens financial firms. Neoliberal policies may have pushed Korea onto a low-investment, low-growth, development path, one with rising insecurity and inequality. Meanwhile, the removal of virtually all restrictions on cross-border capital flows has led to a dramatic increase in the influence of foreign capital in Korea's economy. The paper concludes by arguing that Korea should reject radical neoliberal restructuring and instead adopt reforms designed to democratize and modernize its traditional state-guided growth model.<
from the third:
>Over the last two years, South Korea's economy has recovered from the 1997 East Asian economic crisis faster than anyone expected. Indeed, Korea has become the new poster child for the "freemarket" or "neoliberal" economic restructuring the International Monetary Fund (IMF) is peddling to a suspicious public in the developing world. In early 2000 the IMF touted Korea's "dramatic turnaround" after the crisis. Not only was Korea's output above what it had been before the crisis but, the IMF gleefully proclaimed, "over the past two years bold policies and a commitment to reform have made Korea a more open, competitive, and market driven economy."
>There is a more pessimistic interpretation of Korea's experience under IMF and U.S.-sponsored economic restructuring since late 1997. The harsh policies the IMF imposed on Korea immediately after the start of the Asian crisis actually caused the Korean economy's 1998 collapse. Now, three years later, Korea faces an unbalanced recovery of questionable durability and a labor movement badly, perhaps fatally, wounded by neoliberalism, while the majority of its people suffer rising insecurity and falling incomes. If the IMF and the U.S. government succeed in their drive to transform Korea from an East Asian-style state-guided economy to a market-driven, "globalized" economy, future progressive political movements will find it exceedingly difficult to create an efficient, egalitarian economic system designed to meet the needs of the majority of its people.<
------------------------
Jim Devine [EMAIL PROTECTED] & http://bellarmine.lmu.edu/~jdevine
> -----Original Message-----
> From: F G [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
> Sent: Monday, October 07, 2002 10:21 AM
> To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> Subject: [PEN-L:30993] Re: Re: U.S. port closures batter
> Korea's economy
>
>
>
>
>
> >From: Doug Henwood <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> >Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> >To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> >Subject: [PEN-L:30986] Re: U.S. port closures batter Korea's economy
> >Date: Mon, 7 Oct 2002 12:50:45 -0400
> >
> >Sabri Oncu wrote:
> >
> >>It appears that Korea is not doing well in these days. I remember
> >>that my first exchange on PEN-L was with Brad DeLong. I just
> >>casually wrote, without giving any reasons, at the time that
> >>Korea was at risk and he said, without giving any reasons other
> >>than quoting the Economist, that the IMF bailout of Korea worked
> >>fine. I wonder if he can say the same now.
> >
> >Joseph Stiglitz says Korea's doing well because it ignored the IMF's
> >advice. Does anyone really know what's going on there?
> >
> >Doug
>
> The following papers by left-Keynesian James Crotty et. al. may help:
> http://www.umass.edu/peri/pdfs/PS5.pdf
> http://www.umass.edu/peri/pdfs/WP23.pdf
> http://www.umass.edu/peri/pdfs/PS9.pdf
> From:
> http://www.umass.edu/peri/research.html#gm
> -Frank G.
>
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