Continuing setbacks in the fiscal 2001 budget, debates about direct links with the mainland, and questions about the future of the fourth nuclear plant remain significant issues of contention within domestic politics. Crackdowns on organized crime have further increased fears of internal economic instability. There are also unsubstantiated rumors that the KMT has designed a fall in the Taiex to discredit the Chen administration. The government has responded to drops in the Taiex largely by buying up stocks itself. The government runs four large funds, including the Ministry of Finance's National Stabilization Fund, and it has used them to intervene several times.
Many dispersed investors are critical of government intervention.
Citing a tension between saving the market and a desire to not interfere, critics feel the government has made poor policy choices. Often, it belatedly decides to purchase stocks, only to have its hesitation undermine its efforts as foreign investors have predicted which stocks the government will buy. Local banks are allowed to invest 25 percent of their total deposits. The MoF was able to relax that restriction by reclassifying banks' redeposits in the postal savings system, previously excluded from the eligible amount, as part of their total deposits. In November, Finance Minister Yen Ching-chang decried what he called the negative impact of foreign investors, day traders and those who buys stocks on margin on the market.