This blog post examines why monopolies inevitably form in the platform industry and analyzes, using the Kakao case, why management and competition incentives are more important than dismantling. Can Kakao’s monopoly be dismantled? On October 15, 2022, a fire at the SK C&C data center caused internet service disruptions for related companies. Kakao suffered particularly severe...
This blog post calmly examines how the historical crisis of the Great Depression gave birth to Keynes’s ideas and macroeconomics, exploring its significance within the debate over the roles of the market and government. The Greatest Economist of the 20th Century Following the 2008 U.S. financial crisis and the Eurozone fiscal crisis that began in Greece in 2010, newspapers and media...
This blog post calmly examines why Korea’s real estate market consistently operates as a structure that forces individuals into strange choices, through redevelopment, subscription lotteries, special supply, and premiums. Trade your old home for a new one: Apartment Redevelopment Redevelopment and reconstruction are always hot topics in South Korea. This is because basic necessities...
This blog post structurally examines how Coupang Eats’ free delivery strategy altered consumer choices and competitive dynamics, shaking up the Korean food delivery app market dominated by Baedal Minjok. This blog post discusses the seismic shift in Korea’s food delivery app market and the decline of Baedal Minjok, once the absolute leader. This change was a foreseeable trend...
In this blog post, we calmly examine from the perspectives of psychology and neuroscience how we come to mistake the feeling of ‘wanting to buy’ for ‘need,’ and the process by which the unconscious and emotional marketing dominate consumption. Shopping is unconscious We are exposed to the onslaught of consumer marketing through countless diverse channels. So why can’t we accurately...
This blog post explores why the international community fails to cooperate despite universal recognition of the climate crisis’s severity, analyzing the reasons through the lens of the prisoner’s dilemma, conflicting national interests, and the structure of distrust. The Real Reason Solving the Climate Crisis is Difficult Globally, the climate crisis is becoming increasingly...
This blog post examines why efficiency becomes an issue when the government pursues economic equity, weighs the balance between these two values amid debates over taxation, redistribution, and tax cuts, and summarizes their economic implications. The Economic Implications of Government Policy The market economy system is fundamentally an economic system capable of achieving a significant...
This blog post examines the decline in Korean movie theater audiences from the perspectives of price increases and price elasticity of demand, analyzing both consumer and corporate choices. The Financial Freedom to Skip the Theater Every year from late July to early August, several large-scale, so-called tentpole Korean films are released. The theater industry, which suffered greatly from...
This blog post calmly examines how the Russia-Ukraine war has impacted our daily lives and economy through energy, grain, and inflation, using concrete examples. In February 2022, war broke out following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. For many South Koreans, these two countries—especially Ukraine—are somewhat unfamiliar entities. While the names might be recognized, pinpointing them...
This blog post examines the structure of debt permeating our daily lives, from credit card usage to home equity loans, and calmly explores the implications of household debt for individuals and society. It seeks the criteria for making choices. Loans are like ‘alcohol’ A loan, simply put, is ‘incurring debt’. Having debt isn’t necessarily bad. The problem lies in ‘excessive...