Risks in capricious Vietnam

THE VIETNAMESE AUTHORITIES ARE GOING to great lengths to contain the economic fallout from the violent rampages in the country two weeks ago.

They have promised to compensate foreign companies for their losses, and they are now prosecuting some of the rioters.

They need such immediate and effective crisis control to repair their country's damaged image as a safe and reliable destination for foreign investments. They need to quickly reassure scared investors to stop them leaving permanently. And they need production at the factories destroyed and closed in those fatal riots to begin again as soon as possible.