Korean Job Discussion Forums

[TL]

[Ya-ta Boy]

[Reggie]

Hopefully there's already an active barter system. Otherwise, a lot of farmers will sleep til noon instead of getting up at dawn and a lot of people will starve.

[Hater Depot]

[mises]

Oh. My. What kind of evil government would steal virtually all of the purchasing power of her citizens like that?

Oh, yeah.

[Reggie]

[Ya-ta Boy]

The Chosun Ilbo has a short article that explains the situation.

"The biggest motivation behind North Korea's sudden currency reform Tuesday appears to be Kim Jong-il's intention to throttle the emerging free market, which appears to hamper a smooth succession of power to his son Kim Jong-un...But some experts say the aim is wealth redistribution, while others believe the reform is aimed at containing inflation, which has skyrocketed since North Korea introduced rudiments of a market economy in 2002..."There are numerous cases of wealthy North Koreans paying off government officials and evading government steps to control them," a South Korean government official said...In a recent bid to rein them in, the regime in January limited the types of goods people can sell in markets to only homegrown produce, meat (except beef) and clothing. Manufactured goods and imported products must theoretically be sold in state-run stores. The measure was tantamount to a closure of the street markets. But the orders were met with public outrage and failed..."After failing to shut down private markets in North Korea, currency reform was probably the only option left to neutralize the wealthy merchant class." Cho added the currency reform was aimed at restoring Kim's hold on power. He said that North Korea's new class of wealthy merchants are not the traditional elite and include many people who are not "ideal" communists and could become threats to the state...Sources in the North say business activity has come to a halt since Sunday and that the situation is chaotic. One source says there were only a few wealthy people during the previous currency reform, but this time, there are a lot of North Koreans who have grown wealthy over the past 10 years. Caught off guard by the currency reform, they are either distraught or enraged. There is even talk of a potential revolt."

http://english.chosun.com/site/data/html_dir/2009/12/02/2009120200656.html

[bacasper]

[Hater Depot]

[Kuros]

[mises]

You're saying technology advanced because the currency devalued? I suppose that is true to some extent, as the currency was devalued to pay for wars and many of the major game changing inventions have come after initial development from the American military.

That said, I'd rather live in a world where families are not leveraged to all hell, even if it means I have to give up my Blackberry.

[Kuros]

[mises]

Yeah, that's true. I don't know if the currency was still worth what it was that the economy would be more or less productive. There would be a much smaller financial sector, so there would be more capital for production.

Anyways, I think I might have a thread somewhere where this econ talk is more appropriate. We can all agree that KJI is a complete nut.

[Kuros]

[mises]

I think I read that they're busily completing the hotel now.. Maybe that's what they need the purchasing power for.

You're probably right that KJI is more complicated and rational. But he is nuts. His fixation with his height alone is nuts.