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fiveeagles

Joined: 19 May 2005 Location: Vancouver
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mises
Joined: 05 Nov 2007 Location: retired
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Posted: Mon Feb 23, 2009 1:39 pm Post subject: |
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When I try to open that link I get a message that it is an "attack site".
Anyways, be glad you aren't in Taiwan, op.
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| Another songbird has toppled off its perch. Singapore, the first canary to succumb to the carbon monoxide poisoning of dwindling world trade, may shrink a ghastly 5 per cent this year. Now Taiwan, another export-dependent economy gasping for survival, has gone one worse: its gross domestic product fell 8.4 per cent in the fourth quarter, an annualised contraction, seasonally adjusted, of an alarming 22 per cent. |
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/8d3c3b0e-012a-11de-8f6e-000077b07658.html?nclick_check=1 |
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fiveeagles

Joined: 19 May 2005 Location: Vancouver
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Posted: Mon Feb 23, 2009 3:37 pm Post subject: |
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Fortunately, I am in Canada...but I have many international students at our school and watching the markets to see what happens.
That site is the Korean Herald...it should be fine. |
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lifeinkorea
Joined: 24 Jan 2009 Location: somewhere in China
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Posted: Mon Feb 23, 2009 3:55 pm Post subject: |
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| I'd rather teach in Korea than wrestle zeus half-naked (who is that in the pic?) |
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pkang0202

Joined: 09 Mar 2007
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Posted: Mon Feb 23, 2009 5:00 pm Post subject: Re: Korea's economy isn't looking good. |
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| fiveeagles wrote: |
http://www.koreaherald.co.kr/NEWKHSITE/data/html_dir/2009/02/23/200902230061.asp
Is there any good news out there? |
Well, anyone with a bachelor's degree from USA, Canada, UK, Ireland, NZ, Australia, and South Africa can get a job teaching English in Korea.
Much better off than Koreans with Bachelor's degrees who can't even get a job being the night watchman at an OfficeTel.
We should feel lucky that we have jobs. I just signed a new PS contract, and I know that for 1 year I have steady employment with a VERY low chance of getting laid off. |
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Ilsanman

Joined: 15 Aug 2003 Location: Bucheon, Korea
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Posted: Mon Feb 23, 2009 9:39 pm Post subject: |
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Much better off than Koreans with Bachelor's degrees who can't even get a job being the night watchman at an OfficeTel.
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Those jobs are reserved for pensioners. |
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Rteacher

Joined: 23 May 2005 Location: Western MA, USA
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Posted: Tue Feb 24, 2009 8:44 am Post subject: |
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I don't know how lucky we are being here now that North Korea is like a cornered, rabid rat ready to strike with all the military might it's been buiding up for decades ...  |
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caniff
Joined: 03 Feb 2004 Location: All over the map
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Posted: Tue Feb 24, 2009 8:56 am Post subject: |
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| Rteacher wrote: |
I don't know how lucky we are being here now that North Korea is like a cornered, rabid rat ready to strike with all the military might it's been buiding up for decades ...  |
They do apparently have military might in terms of boots on the ground, but reports I have read indicate that NK has very outdated equipment that it struggles to keep in working order due to the lack of spare parts, fuel shortages, etc.
Biological weaponry and nuclear capability are x-factors, it would seem. |
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pkang0202

Joined: 09 Mar 2007
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Posted: Tue Feb 24, 2009 5:23 pm Post subject: |
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| Ilsanman wrote: |
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Much better off than Koreans with Bachelor's degrees who can't even get a job being the night watchman at an OfficeTel.
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Those jobs are reserved for pensioners. |
Bad example, but you get the drift. I would say, be prepared for the Anti-Foreigner sentiment to heat up and boil over in months ahead.
Think about it. Hundreds of thousands of fresh college graduates can't get a job. All of whom are Internet savvy. It won't take long for one frustrated jobless Korean to go on the internet and complain about how foreigners can get jobs with majors like Sociology or Communications.
When times get rough, blame the foreigners. We should all know the mantra very well. |
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mises
Joined: 05 Nov 2007 Location: retired
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Posted: Tue Feb 24, 2009 6:19 pm Post subject: |
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| pkang0202 wrote: |
| Ilsanman wrote: |
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Much better off than Koreans with Bachelor's degrees who can't even get a job being the night watchman at an OfficeTel.
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Those jobs are reserved for pensioners. |
Bad example, but you get the drift. I would say, be prepared for the Anti-Foreigner sentiment to heat up and boil over in months ahead.
Think about it. Hundreds of thousands of fresh college graduates can't get a job. All of whom are Internet savvy. It won't take long for one frustrated jobless Korean to go on the internet and complain about how foreigners can get jobs with majors like Sociology or Communications.
When times get rough, blame the foreigners. We should all know the mantra very well. |
I think you're right. |
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mises
Joined: 05 Nov 2007 Location: retired
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Posted: Tue Feb 24, 2009 7:01 pm Post subject: |
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| Feb. 25 (Bloomberg) -- Japan�s exports plunged 45.7 percent in January from a year earlier, resulting in a record trade deficit, as recessions in the U.S. and Europe smothered demand for the country�s cars and electronics. |
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aTCZ_f77WEqw&refer=home
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TAIPEI (AFP) � Taiwan's export orders and industrial output posted record falls in January in further blows to the recession-hit island as the global slowdown evaporated demand for electronics, the economic ministry said Tuesday.
Export orders plunged 41.67 percent to 17.68 billion US dollars in the biggest fall since 1984 when the government started compiling figures, a ministry official said. |
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5g6olF-6DOr0KxSeDOqlrsv-4S3cw
Here is some data from January for South Korea:
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South Korea�s vulnerability to the global slump comes from its dependence on exports, which account for more than 60 percent of GDP, up from 38 percent in 2001.
Falling Exports
Shipments fell a record 32.8 percent in January and factory output plunged an unprecedented 18.6 percent in December. Borrowing by households decreased for the first time in a year in January and South Korea lost 103,000 jobs the same month, the most in five years. Samsung Electronics Co., the world�s largest maker of memory chips, liquid-crystal displays and televisions, reported its first-ever quarterly loss last month. |
Shipments don't account for all exports so we can't say for sure what the total decline is. But it is incredibly, breathtakingly bad.
And Singapore too:
http://business.asiaone.com/Business/News/Office/Story/A1Story20090224-124209.html |
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ManintheMiddle
Joined: 20 Oct 2008
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Posted: Wed Feb 25, 2009 1:53 am Post subject: |
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caniff noted:
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| They do apparently have military might in terms of boots on the ground, but reports I have read indicate that NK has very outdated equipment that it struggles to keep in working order due to the lack of spare parts, fuel shortages, etc. |
Yeppers, and one more thing, bruddah: if the NK Army struck and its officer corps was decimated they wouldn't know what to do in the ranks. I recall a WWII vet of the North African theatre of operations against Rommel's AfrikaCorps once observing that without officers the regimented command structure paralyzed the Wehrmacht despite discipline and panzers. He said that if any given war he'd take a platoon of American soldiers without their officers leading them over any other nation's soldiers any day of the week. Think about it.
Cut off the head of the snake and it slithers every which way. |
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llj2kll
Joined: 23 Feb 2009
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Posted: Thu Feb 26, 2009 2:05 am Post subject: |
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| The sky is falling! |
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Kimchi Cha Cha

Joined: 15 May 2003 Location: was Suncheon, now Brisbane
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Posted: Thu Feb 26, 2009 3:41 am Post subject: |
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| mises wrote: |
| pkang0202 wrote: |
| Ilsanman wrote: |
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Much better off than Koreans with Bachelor's degrees who can't even get a job being the night watchman at an OfficeTel.
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Those jobs are reserved for pensioners. |
Bad example, but you get the drift. I would say, be prepared for the Anti-Foreigner sentiment to heat up and boil over in months ahead.
Think about it. Hundreds of thousands of fresh college graduates can't get a job. All of whom are Internet savvy. It won't take long for one frustrated jobless Korean to go on the internet and complain about how foreigners can get jobs with majors like Sociology or Communications.
When times get rough, blame the foreigners. We should all know the mantra very well. |
I think you're right. |
It's already happening in some parts of the peninsula. |
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Jeju Rocks
Joined: 23 Aug 2004
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Posted: Thu Feb 26, 2009 4:15 am Post subject: |
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| The AK-47 will never go out of style. |
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