>---------- Forwarded message ---------- >Date: Tue, 25 Nov 1997 00:38:40 -0800 >From: NewsHound <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] >Subject: Molly Ivins Release: Tuesday, November 25, 1997, And Thereafter > >NewsHound article from "ivins" hound, score "55." >Posted at 7:09 p.m. PST Monday, November 24, 1997 >------------------------------------------------------------ >Molly >>Ivins<< Release: Tuesday, November 25, 1997, And Thereafter > >AUSTIN -- The stupidity of bankers is one of the seven wonders of the >world. Such shining, luminous stupidity: a beacon in the tides of history >-- fixed, permanent, stable, forever. Just as France's Georges Clemenceau >thought war was too important to be left to the generals, economies are too >important to be left to bankers. > >In a particularly entertaining chapter in the long history of banking >stupidity, we now find one Asian economy after another reeling from bad >banking decisions. Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, Hong Kong, >South Korea and now Japan are in a mondo of trouble. > >The International Monetary Fund is scrambling to stop the problem with a >bailout of South Korea, lest Japan be towed under. And Japan itself is >preparing to implement its so-called Big Bang of financial reforms. >According to the experts, these reforms involve "scrapping regulations over >the next four years that have fostered cozy ties between banks, brokers and >insurance companies." Study that sentence carefully. Does it remind you of >anything? > >Helpful hint: Traveler's Groups insurance company buying Salomon Bros. >brokerage? Banks and brokerages merging? Repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act >that built a firewall between the financial institutions? > >Yes, my friends, as one Asian economy after another crashes, American >bankers just can't wait to repeat the same follies that have led to these >marvelous results. Banking intelligence at its finest. > >Here are the experts on what is causing Asia's fiscal woes: > >-- "Wildly overextended banks." (The New York Times) > >-- "South Korea is suffering an acute cash crisis because its banks lent >billions senselessly -- often at government insistence -- to projects that >are now collapsing left and right. The banks in turn were depending on a >river of foreign cash." (The New York Times) > >-- "Citicorp, BankAmerica Corp. and Chase Manhattan Corp. are among the big >U.S. banks that do a lot of business in Asia." (Bloomberg News) > >-- "American economists see a bit of deja vu in Asia's financial crisis. >That's because the noise in the foreign financial markets remind them of >home -- specifically the three bouts of financial troubles in the '80s and >'90s." (The Christian Science Monitor) > >-- "Even Wall Street seems not to fully understand the intricacies of the >hyperlinked global economy." (U.S. News & World Report) > >And my personal favorite: > >-- "The popping sounds heard around the world are not only liquidity >bubbles bursting in property, banking and equity markets but the escaping >hot air of Asian and American arrogance." (Business Week) > >My, my, my, bankers have been dumb again. Amaze us. I personally am so >wedded to the stupid-banking theory of history that if South Korea goes >into meltdown, Japan follows and the United States goes into recession, I >fully expect -- I actually count on -- Alan Greenspan to raise interest >rates in response. It's nice to have something you can count on in a >changing world. > >As James Galbraith of the University of Texas at Austin points out, the >fundamentals here are not, (SET ITAL) pace (END ITAL) Robert Rubin, >"sound." What we have, says Galbraith, is a recovery "based on slow growth, >stagnant wages, rising debts, balance-the-budget fetishism and high >interest rates." And a government made up of politicians so in hock to the >big monied interests that they no more represent the average people in this >country than they can fly. > >As Ralf Dahrendorf writes in the new book "After 1989: Morals, Revolution >and Civil Society": "When economic values begin to dominate politics, >liberty is often at risk. The new economism of capitalists is no less >illiberal than the old one of Marxists." > >Molly >>Ivins<< is a columnist for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. COPYRIGHT >1997 CREATORS SYNDICATE, INC. > >------------------------------------------------------------ >NewsHound is a service of Knight-Ridder, Inc. >For more information, write to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > >This material is copyrighted and may not be republished without permission >of the originating newspaper or wire service. >------------------------------------------------------------
