In the Asian financial crisis in the late 1990s, South Korea, as the country that suffered the most among the four little dragons in Asia, was called by the government to launch an earth-shaking movement from bottom to top. Donate money to save the country? Exercise. After that, it became a perfect crisis example, when people actively chose to share weal and woe with the country, and the government and people trusted each other.

In fact, these gold from the people in those days were not as advertised by the media. Donation? Direct form? Free? For the country; But through personal initiative? Sell? Ways to strengthen the Korean government. Of course, the settlement currency is the exchange rate? Whoosh The decline won.

Therefore, although it was sold, the people got a badly depreciated won. They volunteered to queue up to do it for their motherland? Lose money? Change precious metals with devaluation risk into won and turn them into toilet paper. This patriotism and national cohesion are admirable.

At that time, Koreans lined up to sell gold.

According to the Korean media's own reports, 3 million people provided 227 tons of gold, equivalent to the market value of that year, about 2.2 billion US dollars.

This seems to be a considerable sum. However, we must know that the foreign debt that South Korea needed to repay in the short term was as high as more than $58 billion.

Besides, let's do the math again. According to the information, did you attend that year? Sell? About 200 Korean citizens participated in the event? 3 million people raised $2.2 billion. After conversion, almost everyone took out about100g of gold, which is about the total weight of 50 gold rings. Could it be that South Korea was so developed in the 1990s and everyone was so local tyrant?

Therefore, many voices later questioned this statistic of 227 tons, but the South Korean government was noncommittal and did not give relevant explanations. Obviously, there is still some water in the figures.

From this point of view, even if the statistical value of 227 tons is true, it is equivalent to $2.2 billion, which is a drop in the bucket compared with more than 58 billion, not to mention the possibility that the value is seriously overestimated. Of course, this so-called 2.2 billion has played a certain role, but what if the debt crisis in South Korea was handed down by one of our own? Donation activities? Is it obviously exaggerated to save it?

Here, let's talk about the desperate situation of South Korea at that time.

South Korea's economy can be described as success and failure.

A thriving situation? South Korea's prosperity model? Behind it, is it built between the government, banks and chaebol? Iron triangle? Relationship. The chaebol's debt ratio remains high, and it relies heavily on foreign capital, which leads to the fact that South Korea's economy is very fragile.

During the financial crisis, foreign-funded institutions in Korea withdrew one after another, South Korea's foreign exchange reserves were in a hurry, many large companies closed down, and the whole country's life hung by a thread.

By June1997165438+1October 1 1, South Korea's foreign exchange reserves were only $3.84 billion, but the foreign debt to be repaid in two weeks was as high as $/kloc-0.00 billion. And the next year's procurement budget of food and livelihood materials imported by South Korea from foreign countries is 654.38+0.2 billion US dollars, not to mention.

At this time, the South Korean government tried to ask Japan and the United States for help, but it was rejected. Other foreign banks not only refused to borrow money from Korean banks overnight, but even refused to answer the phone in South Korea later.

In the end, South Korea accepted $58 billion from the International Monetary Fund? Unconditional? The bail-out plan.

Obviously, generally add? Unconditional? Most things happen when there is no way out, such as the defeated country, accept it? Unconditional surrender? . South Korea is no exception this time. Its core is to fully open the financial industry. There is no upper limit for foreign ownership, and it can even be higher than 5 1%. In this way, Korean large enterprises and important industrial institutions related to the national economy and people's livelihood may be controlled by foreign capital. In the short term, this is indeed a very passive and even shameful thing.

However, the old also ushered in the new. Looking back now, with the intervention of the IMF, the era when the Korean government paid for the chaebol enterprises is gone forever, although South Korea is still called? The country kidnapped by the chaebol? But compared with the last century, it has made a lot of progress and the market is relatively fair.