eight years after the IMF relief funds

Hankyoreh has a three-piece feature on the eighth anniversary (was it already so long ago?) of the beginning of the "IMF crisis", or to follow the wording in the article introduction, eight years since the agreement with IMF (International Monetary Fund) on the 55 billion dollar relief loans. The first piece worries of the unfavorable influences of the newly introduced foreign business practices like the loss of "entrepreneurial spirit" (kiôpka chôngsin) when the interest of the shareholders is becoming more and more important. (This reads almost like worrying about effects, the lack of which has been pointed out as deficiencies when the executives couldn't care less about shareholders.) The second one is about banks of which is now 30% is under foreign capital (oeguk chabon). The article laments that the foreign capital and ownership is taking banking outside the public (authorities') control. (As if governmental control of banks and financing had nothing to do with the crisis back then.) But I have actually no arguments against the argument that the sudden opening of finance markets may not have been that beneficial. (There might be good arguments, but I don't have them.) Third article discusses the increased polarization of society. A telling piece of numbers concerning the plight of small businesses: the average income of the self-employed has gone down from 3 million W in 1996 to 2.5 in 2004. Categories at del.icio.us/hunjang: Koreaneconomy ∙ stratification