Golden opportunities

THE Asian crisis has given a glittering new meaning to the term “financial meltdown”. To help cope with collapsing currencies and crumbling stockmarkets, patriotic Thais and South Koreans have been handing in their gold bracelets, brooches and necklaces to be melted into ingots that can be used to repay foreign creditors. But as with other aspects of Asia's turmoil, this gold rush in reverse is destabilising the most distant markets.