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

To: Henry Volquardsen who wrote (7233)	10/20/1998 8:44:00 PM
From: Dayuhan	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 9980

Henry, <<My specific response to you was more on the order of not giving Asian politicians a free pass for having created the mess they are in.>> A free pass is not in order. But Rubin's comments seemed to dwell excessively on the legal and regulatory deficiencies of Asian economies, without mentioning that those deficiencies were perfectly clear during all of the years when banks, funds, and large investors were piling money into those economies, which did a great deal to inflate the bubble. Where was our vaunted regulatory structure? I certainly don't place exclusive blame on lenders and regulators in developed countries. But they deserve a portion of the blame, and they should own up to that portion. Finger-pointing at this stage, in any direction, seems a rather pointless way to pass the time. Steve

To: Henry Volquardsen who wrote (7233)	10/20/1998 8:49:00 PM
From: Jay Scott	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 9980

Henry, on not giving Asian politicians a free pass... I agree completely that their corruption and misguided policies contributed greatly to their current situation, but as the so-called leaders of the Free World, do we have to condone and abet their corruption? Particularly at taxpayer expense? I think about the small investors who have been burned twice, once when their mutual fund investments caved in from emerging market exposure of some form or another, and twice when they coughed up tax dollars to prop up the IMF to make more loans that will never be repaid. More good money into the black hole of bailouts. The argument was made that short-term decisions were being made for political gain. That is true. Reform can only be made by taking calculated political risks in the short-term in order to try to achieve positive results in the long run. This is what Congress ALMOST did by making an IMF reform an issue, before again caving in to the Clinton/media meat grinder. JS