Formerly About Applied Materials Message Board

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Politics : Formerly About Applied Materials

AMAT 256.41

+1.1%

Dec 19 9:30 AM EST

Public Reply Prvt Reply Mark as Last Read File

Previous 10 Next 10 Previous Next

To: trilobyte who wrote (47244)	5/24/2001 8:12:10 PM
From: Katherine Derbyshire	Read Replies (1) of 70976

>>Good grief, and that is why Taiwan and Korea now have world leading semi industries. I'm sure many countries wished they had been a little more reckless at the time and followed the lead of these countries... I thought that the Korea fiasco of 98 was due to currency speculation.<< Hmmm.... you might want to study it a little more closely. Why was the currency vulnerable in the first place? The IMF bailout of Korea was used, in large part, to restructure bank debt. The bank debt problem existed in the first place because companies had debt-to-equity ratios in the 50-100:1 range (or maybe even higher than that). Where'd the debt come from? Fab construction was a big chunk, justified in part by assuming that DRAM would cost $50/MB forever, or at least for long enough to pay off the loans. Though Korea's semiconductor industry emerged from that disaster, it is by no means the towering giant that it was in 1997. Similarly, it's not at all clear that the Taiwanese foundries will look as strong after 2001 as they did at the end of 1999. Katherine

Report TOU Violation

Share This Post

Public Reply Prvt Reply Mark as Last Read File

Previous 10 Next 10 Previous Next