Chapter 334 Fierce Congressional Debate (Part 1)

   On November 17, Hokkaido Takushoku Bank, one of Japan's top ten commercial banks, announced its liquidation, which was actually a bankruptcy. This was the largest bank failure in Japan since World War II. Hokkaido Takusho Bank suffered a huge bad debt loss of about 7.8 billion U.S. dollars, or about 780 billion yen. As the market has fully expected this before, relevant rumors have been circulating for several months, and the Japanese side has also made relevant countermeasures. The Bank of Japan, as the central bank, provided a sum of A huge amount of unsecured loans transferred the assets and liabilities of Hokkaido Takushoku Bank to a regional commercial bank in Hokkaido, North Pacific Bank, which minimized the impact of the news of the bankruptcy of Hokkaido Takushoku Bank on the capital market.

  Because of the central bank’s actions, the market’s risk expectations for Japan’s financial industry have been greatly reduced, and the Tokyo stock market has soared 1,200 points on this day, an increase of up to 8%, the largest increase this year. The market also believes that the simultaneous intervention of the Bank of Japan and public funds will help Japan's financial industry, which is currently in trouble.

  However, in South Korea across the sea, the general worries about the financial industry have not stopped. On the contrary, due to the incidents in Japan's financial industry, the market's worries about the Korean financial industry have generally intensified. Since Japan has already had a precedent for the central bank to rescue the financial industry, the entire money market is now focusing on the Korean financial industry. To be precise, it is focused on the vote on the Korean government's financial rescue bill that will be voted on in the National Assembly today.

The National Assembly Hall, located at No. 1, Yeouido-dong, Yeongdeungpo District, Seoul City, is the place where the Republic of Korea held its parliament. This building was completed in 1974. If the huge blue dome is ignored, the whole building is a 44 The square cuboid has no beauty at all. On the periphery of the meeting hall, there are 24 thick granite columns, symbolizing the 24 solar terms in Korea. Apart from these, the other designs are architecturally unremarkable.

The main conference hall of the Congress, facing the entrance is a well-regulated rostrum, where the chairman of the general assembly and the members who make proposals will sit, and the seats of other voters are surrounded by the rostrum like a fan. The huge fluorescent screen can project the situation of the rostrum in real time to the members who are far away.

The conference hall is divided into two floors. The upper floor surrounds the main conference hall, which is reserved for the public and the media. On the ceiling of the top floor, there is a circular lighting area. The crystal chandelier can illuminate the main hall. In every corner of the conference hall, in addition, the ceiling outside the lighting area is also surrounded by lights of different sizes, symbolizing the unity of the Korean people around the parliament.

Sitting on the rostrum at this time, besides the president and vice president of the National Assembly of Korea, is Oh Haokang, the president of the Korean Academy of Finance and Economics. He is eloquently reading a speech in his hand. reform plan.

It was originally an ordinary routine meeting, but on this day, countless media came. They pointed their guns and short cannons at the rostrum or some congressmen on the observation seats on the second floor. Because the trend of the Korean won has attracted much attention from the market recently. , so the enthusiasm of the media has also been mobilized.

  The reactions of the congressmen listening to Wu Haokang's story on the stage were different. Most of the congressmen from the ruling party, the New Korea Party, looked solemn, as if they were serious. As the Korean economy is currently attracting market attention and domestic financial industry scandals are frequently erupting, they are under increasing pressure. In addition, this year is the year of the general election, and a new president will be elected in December. Under the double pressure, Many members of the New Korea Party believe that if they want to stand up this time, they can only bet on the smooth passage of this bill and its immediate implementation.

  In contrast, members of other opposition parties, such as the New Politics National Assembly Party, the Grand National Party, and the United Korea Party, also have not relaxed expressions. They are also very clear that although the current economic situation is a bit unbearable, only if the water is muddied, those who intend to reach the top will have a chance.

  Both sides have their own narrow minds. Under such circumstances, they are naturally at odds with each other. They have already prepared the corresponding means, and they are waiting for the bill to be voted on to take advantage of the opportunity.

After reading for half an hour, Wu Haokang’s financial reform plan was barely finished. In fact, this financial reform plan has already been placed on the desks of various members of Congress, and now it is read again in public. It's just a formality.

  As soon as Wu Haokang finished speaking, a loud voice was heard in the audience, "I oppose this reform plan!"

Although the Standing Committee presiding over the agenda of the National Assembly meeting did not announce the free expression link, Congressman Lee Hoi-chang of the Grand National Party couldn't wait to jump out, and first expressed his opposition hoarsely and accurately, attracting the attention of the audience and the cameras. After focusing, he slowly stood up and said loudly: "This financial reform plan is extremely unreasonable. Using government management methods to solve the problems caused by consortiums is bound to waste taxpayers' public money. I personally disagree with this bill. , I believe that as long as a congressman with a little conscience and responsibility will not sacrifice taxpayers' money in vain for the benefit of a large consortium."

  Although it is not in line with the agenda, the committee presiding over the meeting has nothing to do. If they block it at this time, they may be charged with interfering with freedom of speech.

  Taxpayers are a big killer of partisanship. Any bill can be implemented or opposed in the name of taxpayers, but in fact public opinion can be manipulated. But as long as the name of the taxpayer is added, any reason can become more just. It has to be said that Li Huichang's reasons for opposition are strong enough.

   "Here we come!" Most of the members of the New Korea Party gave a "click" in their hearts. As expected, they encountered the expected situation.

  Although what Li Huichang expressed is only his personal opinion, how many members of the council would easily believe what he said? In fact, Lee Hoi-chang is the presidential candidate launched by the Grand National Party. He has already won the party's nomination, and the appeal for election is quite high. The current poll test is second only to Kim Dae-jung, the candidate of the New Politics National Assembly Party.

  Although he kept declaring that it was his personal opinion, if he hadn’t gained unity within the party, I believe he wouldn’t have said it for no reason. Thinking of this, members of the New Korea Party glanced at each other, feeling a little bitter in their hearts. Although they occupied the majority of seats in the National Assembly, the bill was barely passed with a 60% approval rate in the party's preliminary vote. That's all, now with the addition of several opposition parties surrounded by tigers and wolves, it is really hard to say whether this bill can be passed.

  With the first beginning, there will naturally be the following follow-up. Following Li Huichang's objection, one after another opposition party members also stood up to express their objections, but most of them opposed because of their opposition, and did not really point out the inadequacies of this bill, so most of them He just rushed to express an opinion and then sat down and kept silent, as if he was only trying to show his face in front of the camera.

  Naturally, many congressmen came prepared to comment on a certain defect of this bill. Since most of the members of the Korean House of Representatives represent the voice of the people in a certain district or a certain cave, although the opinion was put forward by the ruling party, there are still many opposition parties who expressed their support.

The turbulent parliamentary bills lasted for a whole hour. Both sides of the support and opposition were like aunts in the vegetable market, drooling, spitting, arguing hoarsely and red-faced, and the cameras broadcasting live to the people across the country were also arguing. Faithfully record all these scenes.

  The agitated members of parliament blamed each other in the audience, while several members of the high-level parliamentary committee were a little bored. Their task was to maintain the discipline of the meeting and guide the meeting process. But in the South Korean National Assembly, these two items are basically equivalent to nothing. Members of the National Assembly are not promoted by them, and they cannot be dismissed. Therefore, in many cases, these members just act as mud bodhisattvas and turn a blind eye to the chaotic venue discipline. One eye, right as if you didn't see it.

   After another half an hour, the congressmen were a little tired from arguing, and their voices became quieter. Just when people thought the debate would come to an end, Kim Dae-jung, the presidential candidate of the New Politics National Congress Party, stood up, cleared his throat, and then shouted loudly in a voice that could be heard in the audience: "This bill is very wrong. Reasonable. It betrays the interests of the citizens of the Republic of Korea, and it is blunt to say that only traitors can draft such a bill!"

   As soon as the words came out, all four people were shocked.

   Like the committee, the yawning journalists suddenly regained their spirits and turned their cameras on the currently most popular presidential candidate.

Those who spoke before either aimed at the flaws of the bill, or simply opposed it, or, like Li Huichang, explained that the implementation of the bill is a waste of taxpayers’ tax dollars, etc., but no one has ever suggested that this bill is an act of treason . You must know that all of you here are the political elites of the Republic of Korea, and to a certain extent represent most of the country’s classes. Now, Kim Dae-jung is targeting Finance Minister Wu Haokang, who is the backbone of the ruling party. Targeted at the current president.

   It must be explained that South Korea implements a presidential system, and most of the power is in the Blue House. The Prime Minister of South Korea is only a symbolic head of state, and he is not to be credited for his achievements, and he is often the one to bear the blame. Therefore, South Korean prime ministers are mostly nominated by the president and approved by the National Assembly. In order to show unity, they find someone to take the blame. This kind of false title is usually held by people from the opposition party. But in fact, many government functional departments, including the Ministry of Finance, only listen to orders from the Blue House, and do not pay much attention to the Prime Minister.

As soon as Wu Haokang heard that the target was aimed at him, Wu Haokang's old face immediately flushed red, and he opened his mouth to scold his mother, but after he glanced at the flashing red camera on the second floor, he could only utter the swear words that had reached his lips Swallowed it back. It's just that his hesitant image was faithfully recorded by the camera in this way, which inevitably made the audience suspicious.

Without waiting for Wu Haokang to explain, Kim Dae-jung rushed to say: "The current difficulties in the Korean securities and banking industry are caused by some officials of the ruling party. Lending to large consortiums. According to my statistics, they actually give 50% of national savings to large consortia, which is the root of today’s problems.”

Having said that, he raised a piece of paper in his hand, indicating that he came prepared, while the members of the New Political National Assembly Party sitting around him took the opportunity to share the thick stack of materials that had been prepared long ago. distributed everywhere. It didn't take long for lawmakers to hold a sheet of statistical data on South Korea's banking sector loans in almost everyone's hands.

"To put it bluntly, the predicament of the South Korean banking industry today is due to too much government intervention, which has led to the current predicament. And they still want to re-hold the banking industry through this bill and intervene in normal lending The consequences of this going on are that bad debts will become more and more serious.”

"I oppose this bill. The main purpose is to give banks more autonomy in lending, so that they can choose the object of lending through credit ratings and other means of controlling risks, instead of submitting to the government's coercion. It is like The current Korean won foreign exchange market is the same. It is obviously a normal foreign exchange adjustment, but the Ministry of Finance has passed an administrative order to force the Bank of Korea to intervene in the trend of the Korean won. This behavior is not only a waste of the country’s foreign exchange reserves, but also forcibly affects export-oriented enterprises. If this kind of behavior is not betraying the country and harming the interests of the people, what are the interests of the people?"

Without waiting for other congressmen to digest the content of his speech, Kim Dae-jung said: "The depreciation of the Korean won is beneficial to the products of enterprises in the Republic of Korea. Although the depreciation of the Korean won will cause inflation to a certain extent, as long as it is well controlled, this kind of inflation is not too serious. Terrible. And if the Korean Won depreciates by 20%, our exports made in the Republic of Korea will increase by 20%, maybe more. And now, this is being cut with foreign exchange intervention, because of what? Because our companies owe The short-term foreign debts of the Republic of Korea have increased due to the sharp decrease in the foreign exchange reserves of the Republic of Korea. If our companies are busy repaying foreign debts, the competitive advantage of export products brought about by the currency depreciation will disappear, and this It all comes down to the policies implemented by the current South Korean government."

"In the final analysis, the Korean economy is in trouble because of these messy bills. If our congressmen still can't face up to this, then our economy will collapse soon, and the entire Republic of Korea will fall into a catastrophe." This is why I say they are traitors and sinners of the nation.”

   After saying a few words, they are sonorous and powerful, and they are loud and loud. The image of Kim Dae-jung in the camera immediately became tall and plump. Although his words were actually full of loopholes, for ordinary Korean people, how could they understand these things!

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  (end of this chapter)