South Korean Financial Blogger Faces 18 Months of Prison

eldavojohn writes "A South Korean blogger named Park Dae-sung has been arrested and charged with destabilizing foreign markets by blogging about declining companies. This is the same blogger who predicted the economic downturn that has been experienced the world over. The Korean Times offers more information on the community college graduate and the accusations levied against him." Several readers have also sent in news that Omidreza Mirsayafi, an Iranian blogger arrested and imprisoned for his writings earlier this year, has now died in custody.

Comments

Yes, you can make the economy plunge ...

[Slayer]

Anyone remember the UA debacle last September? If the markets are sufficiently hysterical, you can make them plunge with a single headline, regardless whether it's correct or not. The wrong reporting about UA was corrected immediately, yet it sent the markets into a nose dive from which they haven't recovered yet. Regardless of whether the blogger is correct with his statements or not, I would call the reaction of the south korean gov't alarming and telling of the economic troubles soon to emerge there.

So what this incident with the south korean blogger tells me:

• The south korean economy is on the verge of big trouble
• The south korean government is aware of it and desperately tries to keep this concealed
• The south korean government has never heard a thing about the Streisand effect

Re:Believe It.

[jabithew]

I don't know what planet you anti-government/free market extremist types live on

I live on the planet UK. Here on planet UK our central bank has been measuring inflation based on CPI, and using this to set interest rates. This index excludes housing costs, unlike the previous RPI, in an era where house prices were the major inflationary pressure. In addition, though RPI has historically been about 1% higher than CPI, Gordon Brown reduced the target by 0.5%, giving more room for inflation.

Your claim that corporate loan rates are at fault doesn't stack up; low interest rate loans from the Bank of England kept the cost of corporate lending low, and market forces kept price for corporate lending low. Effectively the BoE applied a price ceiling to the wholesale money markets.

I remember years of being told we had only 2% inflation when the inflation we experienced was closer to 5%. Now we have a situation where the BoE has been forced to print money because the banks have so much of their capital tied up in inflated assets that nobody now wants to touch with a barge-pole. The LIBOR has decoupled from the BoE base rate because the BoE is simply not able to provide enough capital to service existing bank debts, let alone allow them to start loaning on more favourable terms.*

All the while we're being told that it's ok to print money because RPI is currently zero, even though CPI is still above target.

Finally, a warning for UK /.ers. Deflation is a myth! CPI will stay high, partly caused by the fall in the pound. If it does, Mr. King will have to raise interest rates, which will cause RPI to shoot through the roof, as the previously negative housing component turns positive. If you don't believe me, look at what the central bankers themselves think when they're forced to put their own money at risk.

Actually, one more thing. This diatribe could be taken to be a criticism of the Bank of England. I think that the Bank and its staff have behaved with decency and competence. The criticisms I make are general criticisms of a central bank model, which may still be a least-bad one, and a criticism of the brief they were given.

*The LIBOR also contains banks' mutual assessment of their reliability i.e. a risk premium. This is enlightening to see.