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.

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.

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…

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…

In the fourteen days since a verdict charged the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK/The North) with sinking the Republic of Korea’s (ROK/The South) Cheonan warship, global investors have realigned risks on the Korean Peninsula at the center of their radars. In this edition of the Korea Economic Slice on KBC, we’ll venture into history to gauge the significance of the recent alleged attack on the Cheonan and analyze the potential outcomes and economic repercussions. Then, we’ll move to identify the coming week’s crucial economic reports, technical indicators from the KOSPI, and the effects of global risks in the Korea economy…

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Looking to the week ahead, many questions regarding the strength of Korea’s economy from the stance of consumers, businesses, and international investors will become much clearer through the aforementioned econ data. However, the KOSPI Korean equity index, the Korean Won, and yields on Korean debt will continue to be heavily influenced by geopolitical factors surrounding the conflict with North Korea and developments in global financial markets, resulting from sovereign default risks in Europe.