It was the masseuse who clued me in. I had asked her, “How’s business been?” She squeezed my neck hard, replied, “Down a bit. They may be laying some of the staff off.” Pity if they cut her, I winced, as she has been an able masseuse, wringing the knots out of my neck and upper-back for the past half year.

“What clients seem most affected by the downturn in business in Suzhou?”

She pounded my shoulders with her fists. “The Koreans and the Swiss.” The Swiss?

The Koreans I can understand. Samsung had been rumoured to be laying off thousands: sluggish domestic and international markets for their appliances. Korean brands such as Samsung and LG do very well in the China market with product lines that range from refrigerators to air conditioners to mobile phones.

Meanwhile, at home, the South Koreans seem bent on outdoing the Americans in the levels of household debt, according to yesterday’s Wall Street Journal.

“Household debt increased to 66% of South Korea’s gross domestic product last year from 38% a decade earlier, accordingin to a recent study by the International Monetary Fund. ..

“The country also turned into a debtor nation for the first time in more than eight years during the third quarter, larely because banks’ external borrowing in creased while the country’s foreign-exchange reserves fell sharply…”

“As exports fade, South Korean producers are likely to cut back…”

As for the Swiss? Go figure.