15 January 1998 Edition
Dream On
by Meadbh Gallagher
The January sales have taken on a whole new meaning this year. Bargain hunters from abroad are in South East Asia to pick up some of the season's best offers. Whole economies are up for grabs.
It all started when some bulls went shopping in the Asian tiger economies. They plundered the tills and then started a stampede out after calling the store credit into question.
After that it was just sell, sell, sell. Now, the bulls are back to buy, buy, buy in what amounts to one big discount warehouse.
On the first day of the sales South Korea went cheap to a billionaire bidder from the US. In Indonesia, the sales fever continues, while Malaysia, Taiwan, Singapore and Thailand are all in the bargain basements.
Away from the virtual reality of the stock floors and money markets, the effect of these forced sales has been devastating. While the billionaire bidders are having a great season, on the ground the casualties are countless. Real people in real shops are panic buying mere food in fear of the inevitable hike in prices.
Unemployment is about to soar and in their first response, the tiger economies are evicting thousands of migrant labourers from poorer neighbouring states.
The collapse of the Asian economies has affected Hong Kong and Japan, and this week Europe was hit too.
Now those wearing the Celtic stripes may feel a little worried that this sort of thing can happen to tigers at all, but there's no comfort coming from the capitalists. To all those expressing fears for the future, the stock answer is: it's a jungle out there.
It is indeed, and it's even more scary when you read the latest Irish Reporter publication, `Under the Belly of the Tiger' in which Denis O'Hearn shows how, compared to the Asian tigers, the Celtic Tiger's claim to that title is highly dubious.
Not only has Irish economic growth been paultry compared to these economies, the growth that's in it is defined mainly by about a dozen US transnationals exporting computers and pharmaceuticals from IDA havens. And while such export growth is being praised, actual foreign investment into the 26 Counties has fallen to two-thirds of what it was in the early `80s.
That hasn't stopped the myth-building. But if the Asian tigers who deserved that name have fallen so cruelly, what for the headless tiger here?
The scary bits don't end there though. The odd thing is that while money markets seem like virtual reality, 95% of the world's trade is in currency. And if the forthcoming referendum in the 26 Counties has its way, by the time the next New Year's sales come round, the Irish punt will no longer exist on those money markets. Us shoppers will of course be allowed to dream on until the new year's sales in 2002, when it's `euros' we'll be spending.
The effect of the next Euro referendum will be to tie the 26 Counties even more in with a motley crew of European countries whose limited agenda includes avoiding a fresh row with one another and keeping poorer nations out.
Hardly the makings of a dream future, even for a headless tiger. And that's saying nothing about the head that's missing.
The January sales have taken on a whole new meaning this year. Bargain hunters from abroad are in South East Asia to pick up some of the season's best offers. Whole economies are up for grabs.
It all started when some bulls went shopping in the Asian tiger economies. They plundered the tills and then started a stampede out after calling the store credit into question.
After that it was just sell, sell, sell. Now, the bulls are back to buy, buy, buy in what amounts to one big discount warehouse.
On the first day of the sales South Korea went cheap to a billionaire bidder from the US. In Indonesia, the sales fever continues, while Malaysia, Taiwan, Singapore and Thailand are all in the bargain basements.
Away from the virtual reality of the stock floors and money markets, the effect of these forced sales has been devastating. While the billionaire bidders are having a great season, on the ground the casualties are countless. Real people in real shops are panic buying mere food in fear of the inevitable hike in prices.
Unemployment is about to soar and in their first response, the tiger economies are evicting thousands of migrant labourers from poorer neighbouring states.
The collapse of the Asian economies has affected Hong Kong and Japan, and this week Europe was hit too.
Now those wearing the Celtic stripes may feel a little worried that this sort of thing can happen to tigers at all, but there's no comfort coming from the capitalists. To all those expressing fears for the future, the stock answer is: it's a jungle out there.
It is indeed, and it's even more scary when you read the latest Irish Reporter publication, `Under the Belly of the Tiger' in which Denis O'Hearn shows how, compared to the Asian tigers, the Celtic Tiger's claim to that title is highly dubious.
Not only has Irish economic growth been paultry compared to these economies, the growth that's in it is defined mainly by about a dozen US transnationals exporting computers and pharmaceuticals from IDA havens. And while such export growth is being praised, actual foreign investment into the 26 Counties has fallen to two-thirds of what it was in the early `80s.
That hasn't stopped the myth-building. But if the Asian tigers who deserved that name have fallen so cruelly, what for the headless tiger here?
The scary bits don't end there though. The odd thing is that while money markets seem like virtual reality, 95% of the world's trade is in currency. And if the forthcoming referendum in the 26 Counties has its way, by the time the next New Year's sales come round, the Irish punt will no longer exist on those money markets. Us shoppers will of course be allowed to dream on until the new year's sales in 2002, when it's `euros' we'll be spending.
The effect of the next Euro referendum will be to tie the 26 Counties even more in with a motley crew of European countries whose limited agenda includes avoiding a fresh row with one another and keeping poorer nations out.
Hardly the makings of a dream future, even for a headless tiger. And that's saying nothing about the head that's missing.