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To: Runner who wrote (4695)	3/9/1998 1:24:00 PM
From: Jeffrey S. Mitchell	Read Replies (4) \| Respond to of 10786

Re: Asian Flu is very real. In case people don't know, my wife is Korean (I met her when she was attending grad school at Yale), so I have paid particular attention there. Like working for the old IBM, a job in Korea was considered a lifetime career. Now, for the first time, they are starting to lay off people. Their whole crises reminds me of the S&L problems we had here in America. Money was lent out freely and spent with abandon giving the impression that things were booming when it was really credit-card spending. Eventually you have to pay it back. Worse, many companies gambled on cheap foreign loans (6% vs 12% I believe) and when the Korean Won got devalued (by half) it meant their debt almost doubled overnight. As for stories, one of my wife's brother-in-law is a doctor who owns his own clinic. Much of their supplies are imported from the US, which means the price has doubled. Unlike the US, the Korean government has put limits on what doctors can charge so the clinics must eat the extra cost. Worse yet, people trying to save a few bucks are going to the government owned clinics that are much less expensive. He's not doing too well now. Also, unlike America, people are willing to donate their gold jewelry to the government to help the cause. Sorry, but considering they found bags of (bribery) money is the (former) President's brother's house, and considering bribes are commonplace in Korea and always have been, I don't think I would go to those lengths. Nevertheless, people think they are helping the economy by not going out for dinner and by not spending except on essentials, so restaurants are hurting bigtime. Well, I could go on, but, yes, things are bad over there and will get worse. Micron has already accused Korean Samsung (I think) of dumping chips on the market and Hyundai has been forced to sell profitable American companies like Symbios Logic (to Adaptec). And one last thing... no mention whatsoever of the Y2K problem. :=0. - Jeff