KMT election spending

Talking Show had some documentation last night on the KMT's election expenses in 2000 and 2004.

In 2000, the KMT spent around NT$12 billion (US$352 million), while the 2004 costs inflated to a staggering NT$40-50 billion (US$1.2 - 1.5 billion) (though this later figure seemed to have weaker documentation to me).

This money appears to come in part from massive stock sales that spike just before and after elections-- over the last seven years, those stock sales from the KMT's main three investment houses (they own seven) have been at least NT$339 billion (nearly US$10 billion), according to their publicly available documents.

That's really a shitload of money, man (the US campaign cost US$1.2 billion in 2004 -- and that was both parties)!

No wonder the KMT was so pissed they lost. And they have simply got to go broke eventually if they're spending like this.