In message <9310181820.AA02600@ah.com>, Eric Hughes writes:
[...] One of Mr Kim;s first presidential acts was to bare his assets. Then ministers, MPs and top civil servants were all required to disclose their net worth. To no one's surprise, while the president's people were mostly clean, many of the old guard turned out to be rolling in wealth whose origins they could not readily explain. Many resigned.
The "real names" reform, announced on August 12th, was Mr Kim's most radical step yet. The issue had been hotly debated for over a decade. Hitherto South Koreans had been able to keep bank accounts in any name they cared to invent; convenient for tax evasion, and for recycling the cash-stuffed white envelopes that for decades have routinely oiled the country's wheels of business and politics alike. A new target market?
My first reaction to this post was, "Are we supposed to feel sorry for these people?" But then I realized that the real problem was giving other people enough power over you that you depend on them to be honest. -- Edward Elhauge | "The only thing worse than being talked about Lever Industries | is not being talked about." San Francisco | -- Oscar Wilde ee@lever.com |