“Because of God’s tender mercy, the morning light from heaven is about to break upon us, to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, and to guide us to the path of peace.”
Luke 1: 78-79
Sunday, July 31, 2011
Friday, July 29, 2011
Jim Quinn: The U.S. Defaulted Long Ago
From the Burning Platform:
The final collapse of our credit expansion boom approaches. We have a choice over the next week. We could voluntarily abandon further credit expansion by voting for a Balanced Budget Amendment to the Constitution or we can raise the debt ceiling, pretend to cut spending far in the future, and allow our currency system to experience a catastrophic final collapse.
The mainstream media acts as if not raising the debt ceiling by next Tuesday will result in America defaulting. This is a crock. America chose to proceed on a path to default decades ago. We are just finally reaching our destination. Below are the choices we made as a people and a country to default on our obligations and eventually destroy our country:
As you can see, next Tuesday means nothing. The debt ceiling means nothing. We chose to default as a nation many years ago. The destination was certain, only the timing was in question. Time to step on the gas.
http://www.theburningplatform.com/?p=19304
The final collapse of our credit expansion boom approaches. We have a choice over the next week. We could voluntarily abandon further credit expansion by voting for a Balanced Budget Amendment to the Constitution or we can raise the debt ceiling, pretend to cut spending far in the future, and allow our currency system to experience a catastrophic final collapse.
The mainstream media acts as if not raising the debt ceiling by next Tuesday will result in America defaulting. This is a crock. America chose to proceed on a path to default decades ago. We are just finally reaching our destination. Below are the choices we made as a people and a country to default on our obligations and eventually destroy our country:
As you can see, next Tuesday means nothing. The debt ceiling means nothing. We chose to default as a nation many years ago. The destination was certain, only the timing was in question. Time to step on the gas.
http://www.theburningplatform.com/?p=19304
Thursday, July 28, 2011
Why Korea’s manufacturing has dwindled and what has replaced manufacturing?; What are the ramifications of this?
Declining manufacturing sector is a sign that Korea is on the path to economic demise.
The gutting of Korea’s manufacturing should be seen in light of global growth and downward spiral. The global business model is reaching its peak…
Korea’s dwindling manufacturing base which is closely associated with the demise of the middle class has been caused by several factors including...
I have stressed that Korea as a nation shouldn’t let the financial service sector become the main element of the Korean economy.
Korea is heavily dependent on the U.S. and China for their trade. The U.S. won’t be the prime export market any longer. China’s bubble economy started to show a sign of slowing.
Korea needs the domestic consumption base to fall back on. This means that Korea needs the solid middle class with disposable incomes. The faltering manufacturing sector leads to decreasing working class incomes.
When people can’t invest profitably in manufacturing, the money tends to flow into finance and speculation. This could be averted by the appropriate policy instrument.
Was the 1997 financial crisis, along with the U.S. monetary policy, foreshadowing the beginning of the end?
Korean chaebols have reportedly increased their affiliates and asset holdings. Where have their expansion and growth come from?
Where have increased capital inflows flown into? Have outside forces compounded by the domestic structural flaws and ineptness been fuelling the financialization of the Korean economy?
As the case of the U.S. has demonstrated, the shredding of manufacturing and increase in predatory finance have led to the demise of the middle class, concentrating its wealth in the top end of food chain.
The widening income gap would have far-reaching effects down the line, economically and socially.
(A detailed analysis on this topic won’t be shared due to the proprietary nature of the content.)
The gutting of Korea’s manufacturing should be seen in light of global growth and downward spiral. The global business model is reaching its peak…
Korea’s dwindling manufacturing base which is closely associated with the demise of the middle class has been caused by several factors including...
I have stressed that Korea as a nation shouldn’t let the financial service sector become the main element of the Korean economy.
Korea is heavily dependent on the U.S. and China for their trade. The U.S. won’t be the prime export market any longer. China’s bubble economy started to show a sign of slowing.
Korea needs the domestic consumption base to fall back on. This means that Korea needs the solid middle class with disposable incomes. The faltering manufacturing sector leads to decreasing working class incomes.
When people can’t invest profitably in manufacturing, the money tends to flow into finance and speculation. This could be averted by the appropriate policy instrument.
Was the 1997 financial crisis, along with the U.S. monetary policy, foreshadowing the beginning of the end?
Korean chaebols have reportedly increased their affiliates and asset holdings. Where have their expansion and growth come from?
Where have increased capital inflows flown into? Have outside forces compounded by the domestic structural flaws and ineptness been fuelling the financialization of the Korean economy?
As the case of the U.S. has demonstrated, the shredding of manufacturing and increase in predatory finance have led to the demise of the middle class, concentrating its wealth in the top end of food chain.
The widening income gap would have far-reaching effects down the line, economically and socially.
(A detailed analysis on this topic won’t be shared due to the proprietary nature of the content.)
Tuesday, July 26, 2011
Korea Set to Introduce Big Investment Banks
The financialization of the Korean economy seems to get accelerated. We know what has happened to the U.S.
We also know that the backbone of the Korean market is retail investors, not investment bankers. Mega investment banks around the globe have invested in paper assets of all kinds, only making money from money, not in productive assets.
As the case of the U.S. has shown, this move may further destroy Korean manufacturing.
From Yonhap:
South Korea will seek to permit the establishment of large homegrown investment banks within this year, which will engage in financing mergers and acquisitions and trading in unlisted stocks, the financial regulator said Tuesday.
Under a revision bill to the capital market law, brokerages with an equity capital over 3 trillion won (US$2.8 billion) will be allowed to become investment banks, the Financial Services Commission (FSC) said.
The average equity capital of the country's top five brokerages stood at 2.7 trillion won as of end-March, around one-thirtieth of that of investment giant Goldman Sachs Group Inc. The five local heavyweights include Daewoo Securities Co., Samsung Securities Co., Hyundai Securities Co., Woori Investment & Securities Co. and Korea Investment & Securities Co.
Last week, FSC Chairman Kim Seok-dong told reporters that a new policy direction on the capital market law is essential to the future of the local financial industry, adding that the regulator will strive to ensure that the capital market law will create explosive energy as originally planned.
South Korea enforced the capital market law in 2009 to help create globally competitive financial giants by abolishing regulatory barriers banning brokerages from pursuing future trading and other asset management operations. Market watchers, however, had highlighted the need to update the act to reflect changes in the global financial environment.
The revision bill also calls for allowing the establishment of an alternative trading system (ATS) in a bid to beef up global competitiveness of the Korea Exchange (KRX), the nation's sole bourse operator.
The FSC also said the introduction of ATS is an inevitable global trend. Around 120 alternative trading systems are in operation across the world, with stock trading via ATS accounting for 42 percent of all stock trading in the United States. Stock trading via ATS reached only 1 percent in Asia last year, but a growing number of countries such as Australia and Singapore have adopted the system.
Meanwhile, the financial regulator also pledged to step up investor protection by tightening regulations and expanding penalty policies on unfair market practices, such as stock price manipulation and scalping. The measure was designed to prevent overseas investment banks and hedge funds from taking advantage of the country's relatively lax regulations on price manipulation, it said.
http://english.yonhapnews.co.kr/business/2011/07/26/20/0503000000AEN20110726004052320F.HTML
We also know that the backbone of the Korean market is retail investors, not investment bankers. Mega investment banks around the globe have invested in paper assets of all kinds, only making money from money, not in productive assets.
As the case of the U.S. has shown, this move may further destroy Korean manufacturing.
From Yonhap:
South Korea will seek to permit the establishment of large homegrown investment banks within this year, which will engage in financing mergers and acquisitions and trading in unlisted stocks, the financial regulator said Tuesday.
Under a revision bill to the capital market law, brokerages with an equity capital over 3 trillion won (US$2.8 billion) will be allowed to become investment banks, the Financial Services Commission (FSC) said.
The average equity capital of the country's top five brokerages stood at 2.7 trillion won as of end-March, around one-thirtieth of that of investment giant Goldman Sachs Group Inc. The five local heavyweights include Daewoo Securities Co., Samsung Securities Co., Hyundai Securities Co., Woori Investment & Securities Co. and Korea Investment & Securities Co.
Last week, FSC Chairman Kim Seok-dong told reporters that a new policy direction on the capital market law is essential to the future of the local financial industry, adding that the regulator will strive to ensure that the capital market law will create explosive energy as originally planned.
South Korea enforced the capital market law in 2009 to help create globally competitive financial giants by abolishing regulatory barriers banning brokerages from pursuing future trading and other asset management operations. Market watchers, however, had highlighted the need to update the act to reflect changes in the global financial environment.
The revision bill also calls for allowing the establishment of an alternative trading system (ATS) in a bid to beef up global competitiveness of the Korea Exchange (KRX), the nation's sole bourse operator.
The FSC also said the introduction of ATS is an inevitable global trend. Around 120 alternative trading systems are in operation across the world, with stock trading via ATS accounting for 42 percent of all stock trading in the United States. Stock trading via ATS reached only 1 percent in Asia last year, but a growing number of countries such as Australia and Singapore have adopted the system.
Meanwhile, the financial regulator also pledged to step up investor protection by tightening regulations and expanding penalty policies on unfair market practices, such as stock price manipulation and scalping. The measure was designed to prevent overseas investment banks and hedge funds from taking advantage of the country's relatively lax regulations on price manipulation, it said.
http://english.yonhapnews.co.kr/business/2011/07/26/20/0503000000AEN20110726004052320F.HTML
Friday, July 1, 2011
Rethinking Korea’s Innovation Engine (Part 5)
What have been the purpose and substance of Korea’s innovation engine?
If innovation doesn’t serve the best interest of the general public, instead only pocket a chosen few, what good would that do for the well-being of a nation?
Innovation is a means to create and sustain the productive capacity, which would help to grow the middle class and enhance living standards of the general public…
By its nature, big business-centered innovation serves the interests of a chosen few in the long-term…
As noted, Korean high tech firms’ successful fast follower approach has limits as they move up the value chain…
A nation’s innovation capacity and trajectory are not decoupled from the overall health of the economy. Innovation endeavor alone can’t sustain the real economy when there are asset bubbles and other policy measures impeding the productive economy. Of course, a deteriorating productive capacity and the financialization of the economy could be in part attributable to outside forces.
Korea’s innovation has been possible in the context of the global boom and growth spiral scene, the Asian mercantile strategy and the U.S. policy such as its reserve currency strategy...
Seen in this light, one has to look into how Korea’s political economy and outside forces have been associated with Korea’s innovation endeavor. Otherwise, one may miss the forest for the trees.
On a side note, China can learn a lot from Korea’s innovation endeavor and development trajectory.
(A detailed analysis on this topic won’t be shared due to the proprietary nature of the content.)
If innovation doesn’t serve the best interest of the general public, instead only pocket a chosen few, what good would that do for the well-being of a nation?
Innovation is a means to create and sustain the productive capacity, which would help to grow the middle class and enhance living standards of the general public…
By its nature, big business-centered innovation serves the interests of a chosen few in the long-term…
As noted, Korean high tech firms’ successful fast follower approach has limits as they move up the value chain…
A nation’s innovation capacity and trajectory are not decoupled from the overall health of the economy. Innovation endeavor alone can’t sustain the real economy when there are asset bubbles and other policy measures impeding the productive economy. Of course, a deteriorating productive capacity and the financialization of the economy could be in part attributable to outside forces.
Korea’s innovation has been possible in the context of the global boom and growth spiral scene, the Asian mercantile strategy and the U.S. policy such as its reserve currency strategy...
Seen in this light, one has to look into how Korea’s political economy and outside forces have been associated with Korea’s innovation endeavor. Otherwise, one may miss the forest for the trees.
On a side note, China can learn a lot from Korea’s innovation endeavor and development trajectory.
(A detailed analysis on this topic won’t be shared due to the proprietary nature of the content.)
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