Introduction The principles of modern value investing—pioneered by figures such as Benjamin Graham, Warren Buffett, and Jim Rogers—rest on a fundamental premise of financial capitalism: over the long term, a company’s stock price converges with its intrinsic business value, cash flows, and earnings potential. In transparent, well-regulated capital markets, robust corporate performance naturally enriches public…

Introduction In the study of modern political economy, sociology, and demography, South Korea occupies a uniquely dramatic position. What took Western industrial nations nearly two centuries to experience—rapid industrialization, democratization, financialization, rapid population aging, and extreme wealth inequality—South Korea compressed into a mere six decades. This hyper-accelerated trajectory transformed the country from a war-torn agrarian…

Introduction A persistent critique of South Korean capital taxation is that restricting outbound investments forces a choice between currency defense and individual wealth creation. However, modern financial infrastructure offers a pragmatic alternative: a policy framework that leverages domestic brokerages to incentivize the repatriation and domestic reinvestment of global capital gains. Because the vast majority of…

Introduction During its “Lost Decades” of economic stagnation, Japan maintained structural resilience largely due to its position as the world’s leading net creditor nation. The massive inflow of foreign dividends, interest payments, and investment returns—its primary income balance—served as a crucial financial shield, sustaining domestic consumption and stabilizing the macroeconomy when internal growth stalled. This…

Introduction The discount applied to South Korean corporate equities—widely referred to as the “Korea Discount”—is neither an undiscovered valuation error nor an accidental anomaly. Investors, policymakers, and corporate managers fully understand that South Korean equities trade at depressed price-to-book ratios due to weak minority shareholder protections, low dividend payouts, and opaque corporate governance. The fundamental…