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

To: Bill Ounce who wrote (8428)	3/24/1999 12:27:00 PM
From: Ramsey Su	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 9980

Bill, when the Japanese bubble was being inflated, I was in the real estate business. I remember we used to just laugh about the prices they were paying for US real estate, from the Rockerfeller center to resorts in Hawaii. The greater fools keep making the earlier fools look like genius. We all knew that it took years before the Japan finally succumbed to the pressure. I have not seen much discussion but Primakov cancelled his trip to the US in reaction to Kosovo. Wasn't Primakov's original mission MONEY? I thought he was going to the IMF to ask for money to repay earlier loans. So is Russia ready to go into default again, almost immediately? No one cares about those Russian BEARS? Japan Inc got to be killed by the strength of the yen during the past couple of qtrs. China has problems coming out of their ears. There is an email circulating around right now, lobbying for China to discontinue its efforts to join the WTO. I assume the actual email will appear on the news in the next few days. Indonesia is no longer a country. Who knows what will emerge after the elections this summer. Are you saying that it's pretty easy for Asia to enter "free-fall mode" again? Absolutely. Just imagine. China has the strongest political leadership in Asia right now, probably followed by S Korea. Isn't that scary enough? We have a tendency to ignore the importance of a stable government, because our political system is so strong here. I am not suggesting Asia will go the way of Russia but without political stability, it is damn hard to do business. Ramsey

To: Bill Ounce who wrote (8428)	3/26/1999 10:02:00 AM
From: Bill Ounce	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 9980

USA Today -- Japanese customs seem to discourage entrepreneurs usatoday.com Tech tripping on tradition Japanese customs seem to discourage entrepreneurs By Julie Schmit, USA TODAY TOKYO - Shinosuke Honjo, 26, graduated from a top university here and did the unthinkable: He went to work for a new Internet company. [...] "In Japan, the free flow of information is something to be feared," says Hiroshi Menjo of the Silicon Valley-based consulting firm, the McKenna Group. [...] Honjo was considering a job at a Japanese bank when he met Hiroshi Mikitani, 34. Mikitani, a Harvard-educated investment banker, had just quit his job to start his own business, an online shopping mall, www.rakuten.co.jp/. Started in 1997, it now has 600 stores and 18 employees and is profitable. Mikitani may take it public. "I want to make all of these young guys rich so that they can go out and start companies," he says. [...]