There’s one aspect to financial markets and individuals’ livelihood, which has become commonplace to economies around the world. Like the proverbial 900 pound gorilla in the room, the risks tied to stagnant labor markets are obvious. This week we’ll be focusing on the state of the labor market in Korea and how it compares to other developed markets abroad. We will identify differences in labor conditions and data collection, then look at ways that Korea can improve its employment situation for future success.

It’s becoming clearer by day that there is little sanity left in the realm that had once been hailed a “free market”. Traders suck up the “good news” of more QE from the Federal Reserve in the U.S., like a junky celebrating one more smack filled syringe he hopes will be soon smuggled in by his big brother. How much longer can the lunacy persist?

The Washington D.C. summit in 2008 crowned the Group of Twenty Nations (G20) as the official global economic summit of industrialized countries. Two years in, Korea is proud to have been chosen to Chair the 2010 G20 summit, which was kicked off in Busan last week for a meeting of the group’s finance ministers. Hosting the G20 certainly represents a milestone on Korea’s global economic ascent; however, the communiqué out of Busan begs a dissimilar fate for the unification of the group…

As the ill-effects of a global financial crisis became evident to world leaders in late fall 2008, export driven economies with surplussed coffers of U.S. dollars did the obvious. They used the cash to stimulate their economies. In one specific nation, the Premier’s words fell like heavy boots on an ant hill, as decrees began to waterfall down from superiors to
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Even after the TARP fund liquidity injections in the U.S. financial sector in 2008, the E.U. has decided to bail out one of it’s member states, Greece, from insolvency. How can this even be considered? Yes, the EU constitution is a whopping 7 years young and therefore demands a minuscule thread of adherence by member states,
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On a positive note for Japan, export growth in December surprised economists by growing at 12.1%, compared to the 7.6% forecast, for the first time since the collapse of Lehman in 2008. Breaking down the numbers, analysts were equally unsurprised to learn which market was responsible for the rapid growth. If I’m hitting my target
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With the autumn comes the brisk northern air that reminds us of the fragility of life and the strict laws of nature; lessons which most years occupy a few thousand microns of brain tissue as such trivial metaphysical notions pass under the radar of consciousness. Yet it seems that we humans subscribe to a separate reality
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Monday Three and six month treasury bonds will be auctioned at 11:30 am Monday and will kick off the monthly test of the demand for short term investment security. The dollar is becoming stronger and rumors, spawned from the announcement of Bond King Bill Gross's "Lehman high" cash levels, are beginning to spur renewed debate
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Japan's revised 2009 third quarter growth fell to a third of the economy's previously reported GDP, as corporations slashed spending and prices fell. The initial estimate of 2009 Q3 growth reported the pace of expansion at 4.8% annually compared to the most current revision to 1.3%. Prime Minister Hatoyama announced a 7.2 trillion Yen ($81
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Market movers will get their fair share of economic data in the November 30, 2009 week, following a shocking deferral by the Dubai World fund of $4 billion last week. The event shocked debt costs around the world in a momentary relapse to the terror which gripped markets and sent LIBOR rates to smothering magnitudes. While
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