Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

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.

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

To: Worswick who wrote (4114)	6/2/1998 1:58:00 PM
From: HB	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 9980

For those interested in Sime Darby and/or the Philippines: portalinc.com (this will point to something else tomorrow) Cheers

To: Worswick who wrote (4114)	6/2/1998 6:20:00 PM
From: MikeM54321	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 9980

Re: Pessimistic article about Japan This sure is a pessimistic view of Japan. This article is from the Street.com and most of those reporters, don't say a lot, but say it loud. Typical for that Website. Sorry I digress. But the author has a good point about Japan needing the most attention and should be the focus. Focus of who? Who knows? Japan is Japan and China is China. They really don't tend to do what anyone would advise them to anyway. Not saying it's good or bad, but appears to be the way it is. >>King Kong No More By Dave Kansas 6/2/98 It's getting tougher to gauge the depth of the Asian problem. A friend of mine wrote recently from Hong Kong to say that the economic situation is quickly turning worse. Rents are dropping and people are more nervous about jobs. Business with mainland companies is getting tougher and questions about possible devaluation persist. At the same time, the Hong Kong stock market has performed terribly, skidding below the 8600 mark, or roughly half its value ahead of last summer's handover. The problems in Hong Kong create a deeper reason for concern about Asia. The former British colony, with its strong links to the mighty Chinese growth story, was supposed to be a powerful port in a storm of economic uncertainty. But Hong Kong is not immune to the problems besetting Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand. In a similar vein, Singapore, once thought to be a dynamic force of financial invulnerability, is also suffering. Dependent on Malaysian trade to a significant degree (it is at the tip of the Malay peninsula, after all), Singapore is watching its economic fortunes fade slowly. Ex-pats report that foreign workers continue to be called back home and local real estate prices are still languishing. On top of that, Singaporean companies are retrenching in the region, exacerbating problems linked with shrinking economies. And, of course, Hong Kong, China and Singapore bring us right back to Tokyo. Despite the stern face coming from Japan, it is growing increasingly difficult to see how the most important economy in the region can pull through the current troubles. Bad debts throughout the region show little hope of getting fully repaid. Toss in the mounting difficulties in South Korea -- another nation with very close ties to the Japanese economy -- and it becomes still harder to divine a solution to all that ails Japan. U.S. investors could sniff at the Tiger economies, and they could even snarl at a big problem in Hong Kong and Singapore -- remember that last fall's initial concern in the wake of Hong Kong's decline dissipated fairly quickly. But Japan is something different. Who Lost Japan has the potential to become the catch phrase of the late 1990s. With the Cold War over, the economic relationships are what truly matter. By using the IMF and other international agencies, the G-7 powers have worked aggressively to maintain economic order. But while putting out brush fires in Mexico may have worked, the international cooperative economic effort is stumbling badly in Russia and in Southeast Asia. The inability to shore up these smaller economies will inevitably start to infect the modestly stronger economies, and Japan is the most vulnerable of all. Perhaps it would behoove economic thinkers to stop their tinkering with countries like Thailand and Russia and spend all of their time devoted to the one issue that truly matters for the global economy: Japan. It won't be easy, but it's much more important to focus on Japan than it is to make sure Singapore can handle the pain.<< MikeM(From Florida)