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To: Chuzzlewit who wrote (81815)	11/22/1998 8:19:00 PM
From: BGR	Respond to of 176387

CTC, You state that The fact is that the rotten combination -- the collusion between the government central banks, local banks and businesses -- brought the Asian economies to their knees. It is my general philosophy to retreat from any discussion in social sciences when opinions are proclaimed as facts. A few closing remarks: 1. I cannot address your concerns about loud proclaimations made by Asian businessmen and governments as that seems outside the realm of economic analysis to me. 2. You state that the function of a bank ... is not to create a system whereby members of a ruling clique allow their conies to profit through political connections. I agree with this definition of crony capitalism. But this is a (largely valid IMO) critique of the political structure of the S.E. Asian countries and tells nothing about the financial structures of the countries, good or bad. And this is most definitely not new information. I find it very interesting to note that the allegations of crony capitalism started flying as soon as the companies run by the cronies were unable to make loan repayments while that was ignored in times of solvency. 3. That S.E. Asian companies were selling goods below cost was hardly unknown before last winter's NYT story. For example, several US memory manufacturers had abandoned that business and anti-dumping law suits were being threatened and/or going on. 4. Low credit cost resulting from currency arbitrage was available to all S.E. Asian companies, not just a few. So it is not that meaningful to me to talk about unprofitable business practices of one set of businesses being supported by low credit cost and of another by currency arbitrage. 5. I note that you have not replied to many of my questions about similarly questionable business/government/bank practices in the US. Thank you for your thoughts. -Apratim.