South Sea bubble
THE IMF's first team of brokers' men were lucky and got posted to Bangkok, the sec- ond team must rub along in Jakarta, but the third has drawn the hardship posting: win- ter in Seoul, where the banks are suffering what is described as a mini-run. (A jog on the banks would be something new.) Mean- while a group of Korean technologists have been called in for questioning on their return from Tonga, where they were selling the King a device that would convert South Sea water into natural gas. After a happy stay at his expense, they explained that their converter would not work there, because of the typhoons. However, they had agreed to set up a Nuclear Waste Com- plete Burning Technology Research and Experimentation Centre, with (so they said) funds invested or borrowed. The IMF should talk to them. They may have a tech- nique for converting Korean bank loans into real assets.
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