Word: chaebols
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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Less than three years ago, South Korea joined the ranks of the world's most developed nations, and parents aspired to get their sons into white-collar jobs at such giant chaebol, or conglomerates, as Samsung that dominate the economy. More than a year of life under the yoke of a humiliating $58 billion bailout from the International Monetary Fund has crushed all that. A bright horizon of lifetime jobs and seemingly nonstop growth has suddenly dimmed. In its place: soaring unemployment, a more competitive role in the global economy and diminished expectations for a country that had worked hard...
...their own catering joints. The definition of what's respectable in South Korea has changed fast since economic collapse punched a hole in the Korean Dream. When the country was vaulting to economic success, parents aspired to get their sons into white-collar jobs at giant chaebol, or conglomerates, like Samsung. A year of life under the yoke of a humiliating $58 billion bailout from the International Monetary Fund has crushed all that. A bright horizon of lifetime jobs and seemingly nonstop growth has suddenly dimmed. In its place: soaring unemployment, a more competitive role in the global economy...
Just as quickly he will need to shed the candidate's instinct to please everyone as often as possible. "It doesn't matter who makes what promises to get votes," said an executive at one of Korea's largest conglomerates, or chaebol, "because their policies will be bounded by IMF guidelines." Within those limits, though, Kim's background does give reason for hope. His strong labor credentials could help keep workers off the streets when the layoffs begin. And as IMF reforms dissolve the cozy networks that have wed politicians and chaebol executives, the longtime outsider will finally have...
...worst-case scenario of what could happen in Japan. Both economies are dominated by an unholy trinity of old-school politicians, bureaucrats and industrialists, whose "crony capitalism" has loaded up their respective countries with untenable debt. The crunch came in Korea when a wave of bankruptcies by conglomerates, or chaebol, crashed down on the country's banks, flooding them with write-offs for bad loans. Defaults of a comparable magnitude in Japan's $4.2 trillion economy, which is nearly 10 times the size of Korea's, could turn the so-called Asian Contagion into a worldwide pandemic that could even...
...growth slowed and Seoul opened its economy to foreign competition, the fat profit margins of Korean companies suddenly became anorexic. Manufacturers like carmaker Kia Motors and steelcaster Hanbo have collapsed. Yet the chaebol kept begging for money, and their bankers kept obliging. Result: loans to Korean companies have reached an amount equal to 165% of Korea's GDP, and rumors abound that the country may seek an International Monetary Fund rescue. Seoul, however, denies...