6 SEPTEMBER 1997, Page 26

Just adjust

REACTING to crisis by playing to their strengths, the Thais are to open a Sensuali- ty Bank. It is being promoted by Oy Bm, her country's most famous mama-san. She has already offered the Prime Minister a gold card. 'I know people in all kinds of sit- uations,' she says. 'Some of them I knew when they were quite unimportant.' Her bank's balance-sheet will repay close inspection, and I am sure that it will have the IMF's approval. They are great believ- ers, there, in structural adjustment.