Word: baht
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1990-1999
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...conventional wisdom is that the economic anxiety now gripping much of the world has its roots in the collapse of Thailand's currency, the baht, in July 1997, after investors discovered that Thailand's economic boom was built on a base as solid as a bowl of pad Thai noodles. But the roots actually reach back further, to Black Monday, Oct. 19, 1987, when the Dow Jones industrial average shed 22.6% of its value in a single day. The market, of course, rebounded--and how. But at the time, professional investors thought U.S. stocks were due for a decade...
...hedge-fund manager, I use leverage sparingly and don't buy any instrument whose price can't be found in the Wall Street Journal. I bet on stocks that my research shows to be under- or overvalued, not on the direction of the French yield curve or the Thai baht. I play defense by betting against stocks that are too expensive, usually by buying put options--in essence, borrowing shares that I can repay at a profit after the price declines...
...sweep of the political breakdown is astonishing. In Thailand, where the disintegration of the baht one year ago set off the tidal wave, the Prime Minister presided over a spectacularly corrupt regime. General Chavalit Yongchaiyudh, a former army chief turned politician, wasted billions propping up ailing finance companies owned by political cronies. When the currency crumbled under the pressure, he chose to throw good money after bad in a futile attempt to avoid a humiliating devaluation. Malaysia's cantankerous, 72-year-old Premier Mahathir Mohamad, strongman for 17 years, ran a one-man show with total control over the country...
...currency speculators, having knocked off Asia's weaklings, such as the Thai baht and the Malaysian ringgit, are now taking on the region's Godzillas: the Japanese yen, the Hong Kong dollar and the Chinese renminbi. The three are relatively stable, buttressed by huge economies and, in the case of the renminbi and the HKD, by solid "pegs" to the U.S. dollar that the Chinese government has pledged to defend--even at tremendous national cost...
...this case, SK Securities entered into a currency-swap deal with Morgan in early 1997 whereby SK Securities in effect borrowed U.S. dollars and invested them in Thai baht. But within a year the baht plunged in value, from 25 to 48 to the dollar, and the Korean firms couldn't cough up the dollars to repay Morgan. They subsequently sued Morgan in New York and in South Korea, claiming they weren't properly advised of the risks associated with derivatives...