On Mon, 13 Oct 1997 kjkhoo@pop.jaring.my wrote regarding the Thai
bailout:
> But note that this was organized under the auspices of the IMF. Further, when
> an Asian bail-out fund, ostensibly independent of the IMF, was proposed by the
> Japanese, it was quickly shot down.
> Recall too that the World Bank book on the East Asian Economic Miracle was
> funded by the Japanese, but ultimately subject to spin-doctoring within the
> World Bank -- see Robert Wade's piece in the NLR on this.
But the fortunes of the ideology-industry (and it is indeed an industry
nowadays) are not the same thing as the economic fundamentals and social
organization of Japanese industry. Sure, MITI doesn't have the last word
on an English-language publication designed to preach the virtues of
neoliberalism to the neolib faithful. But what does that have to do with
the Mitsubishi keiretsu's investment policies? Very little. Sure, the
chattering classes will chatter and the management gurus will guru-ize,
but at the end of the day, East Asia will do what East Asia wants and to
hell with the Americans or their IMF/World Bank satrapies, because East
Asia is a net creditor to the Americans, and not the other way around.
-- Dennis