smokehard

The Korea Times ran a wonderful article about how foreign banks in Korea are making profits from government initiated measures to counter the short-term loan crisis. It’s wonderful because it shows how truly fond Korea is of  foreign companies doing business (and making a profit!!!!) in Korea. It really does illustrate how far this country has come toward welcoming outsiders into the Korean fold. No. Wait. Actually, who am I kidding, it illustrates how absurdly negative this country is toward foreign businesses operating in Korea. Just look at the “us” vs “them” mentality. If this is how the English language Korean press writes, I can’t even imagine how negative they are in the Korean language press. Here are a few of the opening sentences (emphasis mine).

Foreign banks operating here showed a robust improvement in performance last year on the back of strong profits from currency and derivatives trading.

In particular, they reaped windfall gains, capitalizing on growing arbitrage profit opportunities created by the government’s intervention in the market to curb soaring short-term debt.

According to sources, the combined net profit of the 31 foreign bank branches here topped 337.7 billion won last year, up from 236.1 billion won in 2006 and 90.2 billion won in 2005.

They include HSBC, Deutsche Bank, JP Morgan Chase Manhattan, Barclays Capital, Bank of America and Bank of Nova Scotia.

They made big gains in transactions related to currency products and derivatives. Profits from such transactions reached 1.5 trillion won in 2007, compared with 319.4 billion won in 2006 and 965.2 billion won in 2005.

Heaven forbid that a foreign company in Korea operates with the goal of making a profit. What on earth are they thinking? It’s bad enough that they pay Korean taxes and employ Korean nationals…but to make the forbidden P word? It’s enough to rot your socks off!!!

Clearly, something has got to be done! It isn’t good enoug that of all the OECD member states, Korea is the only one with negative Foreign Direct Investment. The government MUST step forward and stifle any and all attempts by foreign businesses to profit from the hard work of the Korean people and the blunders of the Korean government.