Korean Job Discussion Forums

[bassexpander]

I see a shift in blaming the current financial crisis on foreigners and the foreign media.

In the past week or so, several Korean newspapers have been pushing "feel-good" articles on the Korean won. By that, I mean when the won has made tiny gains, they make the gains sound massive. It almost seems like a coordinated effort (I'm talking in the English papers) to make foreigners feel like things aren't all that bad.

I'm now seeing a great deal of the reporting focusing around how those darned evil foreigners are responsible for this mess, because they're pulling their money out (true, but little or no attention as to any Korean faults as to why they're pulling out money). Now, it seems, those nasty foreign reporters may cause everything to go to hell in a handbasket, so maybe we shouldn't believe them:

http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/biz/2008/10/123_33324.html

[crescent]

Sorry, man, but this crisis was born in America. When things are bad, the first things to be retracted are overseas offices and accounts.
And foreign media ARE forecasting bad times for Korea.
Sounds accurate to me.

[bassexpander]

Blame it on America. I've seen you echo this in various other threads too.

In case you haven't noticed, Korea's crisis with their currency is very different compared to other currencies in Asia. That is the crisis we're talking about here. If foreigners want to pull their money out of here, that's their choice. If they had never put it here in the first place, what would the difference be now?

A lot of people have been living off of the notion of perceived wealth which was never really there. Now there is a massive correction going on. Is that the waygook's fault?

[crescent]

Do you have me confused with someone else? This is the first time I've BLAMED America for anything.

Your quote highlight mentions the FINANCIAL crisis, not CURRENCY crisis.

[bassexpander]

[jkelly80]

The reason this is the US' "fault" is only because so many other countries have hitched their wagons to our horse. It's our fault that our horse got sick, but not that everyone else's wagons have broken down.

[crescent]

I realize financial problems and currency problems are parts of the same whole, but really Korea's currency issues ARE being irritated even more by the situation in the west... (America).

Foreign companies now have another reason to pull back on their overseas deals.

[jdog2050]

[diver]

re: the OP;

Would you expect anything less from a country that named their previous financial mess after the institution that bailed them out?

It was NOT an "IMF Crisis". It was a Korean Financial Mismanagement Crisis.

[wanderingross]

OP- Try not to be so offended. They're not refering to you or any other foreign expat teaching here. They're refering to the big bludge bracket investment banks, pension funds, mutual funds, insurance companies and hedge funds that a top taking massive losses in the US can't afford another meltdown overseas. And these institutions that I speak of are not limited to American firms. Across the gamut of large finance everyone is hording their tattered balance sheets into cash. American dollars to be more specific. So don't think that their worried about foreign English teacher currency remmitance. We are like a speck of dust in sand storm.

And, in in part Korea has to own up to their problems right now. From what I have been able to gather their reaction to the crisis has been slow and their interest rates were artificially placed too high prior to the collapse.

Let us not forget though. It's America that underwrote subprime loans. It was America that packaged and rated the toxic debentured debt. It was America that kept its interest rates artificiall high. And it is America that has been hording vast amounts of foreign debt over the past 10 years. We are at the center of this storm and I have no problem with other countries being pissed at us beacause of it.

[ernie]

i can't help but chuckle every time someone blames the current crisis on greed. corporations are legally obligated to maximize their profits (within the law), or can be sued by their shareholders!

[wanderingross]

At the expense of global economic security?

Millions of jobs lost, millions of retirement accounts declining to a mere fraction of their value a year ago, not to mention the trillions upon trillions in equity lost world wide. No, I don't think that Country Wide, New Century, or any other of those sub prime lenders deserve anyone defending their "corporate profits" or how the went about procuring them.

There is no doubt that our current situation is caused by a certain amount of greed and arrogance.

And as far as maximizing profits all I have to say is you obiviously have no idea what is going on. Almost every single one of the sub prime lenders went under. Three of the top IB's either went under or got sold at fire sale prices. Shareholder value was all but dissolved. No one is comming out on top here, but its certainly the shareholders, if anyone, who are taking the brunt of this crash.

[wylies99]

[Scotticus]

[Sleepy in Seoul]