But its immediate importance, experts said, is less for the business opportunities it creates than the signals it sends to troubled global financial markets-that borders will remain broadly open to the trillions of dollars flowing internationally. Although details weren't immediately available, the agreement indicates that several snags were resolved at least partially to the satisfaction of the Clinton administration, which had been holding up the deal in an effort to pressure several Asian countries into last-minute concessions. Such concessions are the precise conditions of the South Korea bailout agreement. The transformation of South Korea from an economy protected by all manner of state institutions to one open to outside domination, with the concomitant austerity and privatization required by the IMF, may be the quickest economic transformation in capitalist history. Meanwhile, the standard of living in these countries continues to plummet-as it is everywhere.
Wage inequality is on the rise.
Poverty and degradation are becoming more and more generalized. South Koreans are certainly reacting. The Sangyong group, anticipating a sharp drop in government spending and a slowdown in the private sector, plans to lay off 30 percent of its employees. Those who remain likely will face pay cuts of about 30 percent. Already, wheat prices are up by about a third.