In the United States, state and local government budgets have been suffering the repercussions of the economic downturn that hit the world since 2008. Lagging revenues have resulted from lower property and income taxes as real estate values and the size of the job market precipitously fell for the past three years. Moreover, public spending at local and state levels had been rising, much thanks to the government’s massive stimulus of fiscal appropriations on the state level, supporting and expanding public payrolls for the past year.

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.

In 1933 the Gold Standard was pushed aside and the United States Dollar (USD) officially became tied to nothing. Later in 1944, during a gathering of global leaders in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire, international exchange rate policies were put in place to assure the system of “floating” global currencies. Yet it would be the Mr. John Maynard Keynes who went on to define this exchange of paper money as “fiat currency”, or money where the “material substance… is divorced from its monetary value”.

From a Western financial professional’s perspective, South Korea has traditionally been overlooked. The most familiar big three finance hubs in the East were forged in Singapore, Hong Kong, and Tokyo. However, Korea is redefining itself as a major marketplace for a specific breed of financial product, broadly labeled as “derivatives”. Here we’ll give a crash course on derivatives and their place in financial markets, inspect their recent appearance in emerging markets, and theorize as to the effect they will have on Korea’s global financial presence and the economy as a whole.

Korea’s borders surround just under one-hundred-thousand square kilometers, making the land mass a bit larger than the U.S. state of Indiana, with a population of approximately 48,000,000; over seven times that of Indiana. It’s safe to say that the result of these basic observations has for years been a high demand for real estate in Korea. This week we’ll discuss the state of the South Korea real estate market by investigating the Korean “Jeonse” (key money) lease process, and look for answers to the looming supply of unfilled apartment skyscrapers in years to come

urprising the world now twice in six months by leading rather than following the G20 nations, South Korea has spearheaded dual mandates which have put the central Bank of Korea (BOK) on the offensive. Clearly Korea hasn’t forgotten the woes of 1998 and 2008, when the KRW dropped precipitously and twice scarred the investment portfolios of international players. It is now certain that currency protection is the name of the game in Seoul. This week we’ll identify how Korea’s monetary policy stacks up against its rival “Asian tigers”, and determine where Korea may find itself tomorrow as a result of today’s environment.

Constructed by years of fiscal white lies and monetary insanity, the body bags have yet to be filled. Municipal governments in China still depend on increasing real estate values, while European banks holding large debts of failing Southeastern states still stand. The United States Economy has “recovered faster than anyone could have imagined” and the S&P 500 at one time had nearly doubled from it’s lows. But still the whispers; 10 year U.S. Treasuries nearing 3% yields, LIBOR trending higher, market technicals showing a shift towards negative confidence, and this weeks economic data hanging in the balance…

The moment that Europe and the U.S. have been lobbying for over the past nine months finally arrived, as China ended the rule based exchange rate “peg” of the Renminbi, or Chinese Yuan, to the U.S. Dollar. While the immediate implications of a floating Yuan are positive for Asia as a whole, the mid-term reprocussions of a stronger Renminbi may tell a starkly different tale.

As founder and editor of Diamond Slice I’m proud to announce that The Weekly Spectrum is going to be more “focused”. It’s obvious that you can get a weekly outlook anywhere on the net, so the one you’ll find here is about to become a bit, well, edgy. There’s enough “fair and balanced” out there to kill us all of boredom, I believe that we at DS can give you something much better, something much smarter, and something you can actually profit from. So without any further ado, I give you “The Weekly Spectrum” 2.0…

June 17, 2010 – Stock markets around the world have found solace in the leaked, then officially released, China Export data; showing a 48.5% increase in exports in May from comparable data in 2009. Conveniently timed with the past week’s global equity rally that followed the China Export numbers, were several announcements from South Korean financial leaders. First, Korea announced new measures to tighten restrictions on Currency Futures trading, and then proposed an indefinite re-opening of the currency swap lines between the Bank of Korea and The U.S. Fed, which were closed in February 2010…