Stop exaggerating Asia's troubles<\/p>\n
The economies of Southeast Asia are in varying degrees of
\ntrouble....As their economies grew so rapidly, many of their
\npolitical institutions did not keep pace. The result has been
\ncorruption, a lack of transparency, inadequate supervision of
\nbanking and insufficient investment in education to train the
\nnext generation of workers and engineers.<\/p>\n
But none of those shortcomings is new, and none prevented the
\nSoutheast Asian economies from progressing from poverty toward
\nmiddle-class success with historic swiftness. The tiger
\neconomies, in other words, did many things right, and continue to
\ndo many things right. Their savings rates are high; their fiscal
\npolicies are responsible. They invested heavily in public health
\nand primary education. They opened their economies to trade and
\nforeign direct investment.<\/p>\n
Many of the fundamentals were and remain sound. the question
\nnow is how quickly these nations can correct their admittedly
\nreal shortcomings and return to a path of growth.<\/p>\n
All of them, to successfully evolve into higher-tech, higher-
\nincome economies, will have to reform their political systems in
\nways that will discomfort entrenched elites. They will have to
\ndemocratize, regulate more evenly and openly, get serious about
\npublic corruption. But if their troubles are falsely exaggerated,
\nthe recovery could take far longer than necessary.<\/p>\n
Some outside investors and would-be saviors now are calling
\nfor draconian treatment: Banks should be shuttered, budgets
\nslashed, interest rates jacked up. Overdoing such remedies could
\nsend the region into a prolonged and unnecessary recession. That
\nwould have grave human costs in Asia, and it would hurt the U.S.
\neconomy, too.<\/p>\n
Jeffrey Sachs, a Harvard economist whose credibility is
\nbolstered by the general warnings he issued before last July's
\ncrash, now cautions against an overreaction.<\/p>\n
\"Asia's long-term growth prospects are real,\" he said at an
\nAsian Development Bank conference in Washington last week. \"There
\nis work to be done, but no reason why this financial crisis
\nshould turn into a prolonged contraction -- unless misguided
\npolicies were to make it so.\"<\/p>\n
-- The Washington Post<\/p>", "url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/stop-exaggerating-asias-troubles-1447893297", "image": "" }, "sponsor": "Okusi Associates", "sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com" }