Peter,
why do you think they raised interest rates on $ deposits?
did you forget a few <ggg> behind that question?
There are some positive sentiments reported recently regarding Asia. Most notable was M Lynch today, citing restructuring such as SONY's big layoff announcements as the turning point.
While corp restructuring did indeed mark the bottom of the US recession earlier this decade, comparing that to Japan may be premature. With the massive layoffs during the US restructuring era, topped by IBM breaking the Japanese style "job for life" promise, the unemployment created by these restructures was absorbed by deregulation. USA Inc thus became the lean mean machine, just in time for the tech revolution.
Japan Inc may be restructuring but the unemployed has no where to go. Reported at 4.3%, it is at historical high. Compound that by an estimated rate of 8+% for Korea, 10+% for China, ?% for Indonesia, the employment picture in Asia is very ugly. Most of these countries have little or no safety nets for the unemployed. I therefore opine that this optimism may be unjustified.
Unfortunately, I have no reliable source for Asian data anymore. Everyone has their own agenda and will tell you whatever they want you to believe. BOJ, BOK, HKMA, BOC are all playing the Greenspan jawboning game. Oh well, such is reality for the small investor.
Ramsey |
