minister Mahathir Mohamad blamed the ringgit’s devaluation on “Jewish speculators.” (You may remember how everyone in New York was going around saying, “Oy vey, sell the ringgit.”) By October 1997, the currency-dumping spree had reached Hong Kong, and, although the Hong Kong dollar wasn’t devalued, the Hong Kong stock market took a TWA Flight 800.§ The Hang Seng index fell 1,211 points on October 23, with its shares losing $42 billion in value. This scared the pants off the Japanese market. The pantsless Japanese shocked the European markets, which took it out on the markets in Mexico and Brazil (on the theory, I guess, that undercapitalized wogs are undercapitalized wogs no matter where you find them). By Monday, October 27, the terror had reached the New York Stock Exchange. The Dow Jones Industrial Average went down 554 points because . . . because everyone else was doing it. It was the largest dollar decline in history and the largest percentage drop in ten years. Then the market recovered. “Monday was very, very scary,” said David the floor broker. “We were worried about Tuesday. But after the Tuesday rally started, it was all forgotten.” It turns out that on October 28, the American economy was still there. None of America’s factories or malls had been abducted by space aliens. American workers hadn’t forgotten how to flip burgers during the night. The market soared. But was this just a “dead-cat bounce”? On Wall Street, they say—“Even a dead cat will bounce once if it drops from high enough.” The market skidded. But Asian devaluations could be good. Imports will be cheaper. Inflation will stay low. The market jumped. But Asian devaluations could be bad. Exports will cost more. Trade will suffer. The market plummeted. What if Japan gets dragged down? The market plunged some more. Who cares? All we sell Japan are Seinfeld reruns. The market leaped. What about China? The market slid. What about my beach house? The market bounced back. “We’re rich!” I told my wife. “Get a Range Rover and a pasta machine!” “We’re poor!” I yelled. “Sell the dog.” “We’re rich again!” “We’re poor.” “We’re really poor.”
Made with FlippingBook - professional solution for displaying marketing and sales documents online