In 1997 when we had to face a severe economic downturn, the government under the stewardship of Mahathir Mohamed setup Danaharta to help bail out ailing companies.
Danaharta was our national asset management company. When the sick companies are back in black, Danaharta sold of the companies back to the rightful owners. When all is well, Danaharta was to be dissolved (remember it used public funds to damper the situation).
We were heavily critisised by the US for coming up with such radical solution. Our government then, among others instructed some banks to cut loss and merge to reduce losses and avoid bankruptcy.
This month, in the US, Lehman Brothers, an investment bank collapsed. And AIG is also filing for bankruptcy. Guess what the US government is doing to manage the situation? They copy us. When I read this story here, I told myself, this sounds very much like Danaharta which the US used to critisise.
I just smiled.
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