Re: Korea owned by foreigners?

[Michael Perelman <michael@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

It means possibly less discretion for domestic policy.  It is harder for a
gov't to stand up to foreign capital from strong imperial countries.


On Wed, Jun 04, 2003 at 09:05:56AM -0700, Devine, James wrote:
> I wonder if it matters. Are S. Korea or Canadian capitalists better, less
> rapacious, than US ones? One way it matters is that the US ones have the US
> state to back them up, perhaps in effect getting "extraterrorial rights" in
> other countries.
>
> ------------------------
> Jim Devine jdevine@xxxxxxx &  http://bellarmine.lmu.edu/~jdevine
>
>
>
>
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: k hanly [mailto:khanly@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]
> > Sent: Wednesday, June 04, 2003 9:08 AM
> > To: PEN-L@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> > Subject: Re: [PEN-L] Korea owned by foreigners?
> >
> >
> > This used to be a big issue in the left in Canada but it
> > doesnt seem to
> > generate the same interest nowadays as back in the sixties.
> > Here is a URL
> > for a piece by Mel Hurtig a publisher businessman who has always been
> > critical of foreign (mostly US) control of Canadian
> > companies. He claims
> > that 40 percent of the top 500 Canadian companies are foreign
> > controlled but
> > share ownership value percentage would be much less.
> >
> > http://www.monetary-reform.on.ca/archives/5h.shtml
> >
> > According to statstics  Canada value of foreign owned
> > businesses is 24% but
> > this factoid is not of much analytical value. Hurtig points
> > out that almost
> > all of recent foreign investment -well over 90 percent-- has been for
> > takeovers rather than investment to create new businesses and
> > also that
> > whole sectors such as the auto and chemical industry are dominated by
> > foreign investment.
> >
> > Cheers, Ken Hanly
> >
> >
> > ----- Original Message -----
> > From: "Eugene Coyle" <eugenecoyle@xxxxxxx>
> > To: <PEN-L@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> > Sent: Wednesday, June 04, 2003 10:28 AM
> > Subject: Korea owned by foreigners?
> >
> >
> > > Today's WSJ reports that
> > >
> > > "Foreigners now own more than 34% of South Korean shares by
> > value, up
> > > from just 13% at the end of 1996, the year before the start
> > of the Asian
> > > financial crisis.  This is leading to friction between
> > investors looking
> > > for Western-style corporate governance and Korean managers."
> > >
> > > 34% of public shares seems to me to be extremely high.
> > >
> > > Anybody know statistics for other countries?
> > >
> > > Gene Coyle
> >

--
Michael Perelman
Economics Department
California State University
Chico, CA 95929

Tel. 530-898-5321
E-Mail michael@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx