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Strategies & Market Trends : Asia Forum -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Thomas M. who wrote (9387)	10/6/1999 2:21:00 PM
From: Robert Douglas	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 9980

Tom, "... it is interesting to note that China, which maintained in 1998 that foreign direct investments were rising, recently admitted that they had fallen from over US$45 billion in 1997 to US$30 billion in 1998." Why do you find this so interesting? The essay your quote is taken from was written on May 3 of 1999 which, by my counting, is barely 4 months from 1998. Even the United States, whose statistical gathering methods are greatly superior, has trouble collecting numbers on direct foreign investment. It is a notoriously difficult number to compile and is easily revised. So why does it bother you so that China admitted that their numbers slipped from a positive $45 billion in 1997 to a positive $30 billion in 1998? Even if they had been expecting a rise in this number, the results can hardly be characterized as disastrous. The author tries to make this sound sinister or perhaps ominous. I find it to be neither. -Robert

To: Thomas M. who wrote (9387)	10/6/1999 3:05:00 PM
From: shadowman	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 9980

Thanks Thomas, I found the article very interesting. I find little to argue with as far as Faber's macro historical view. The historical economic data is food for thought. I'm sure there are some who don't want to hear about inequities in wealth distribution and the possibility that actually paying unskilled workers in developing and developed countries a wage high enough to allow them to consume the goods that they might produce could actually be an economic positive rather than a burden to those that have to pay it....I know somebody will say that the consumers of these goods will ultimately have to pay the increased cost of goods....yawn :)