The ministry also reinstated an old rule requiring cash deposits prior to share purchases. The result, quite predictably, was a slide in the price of blue-chips. Shin's callers are individual investors, who look to the government to correct what they perceive to be an imbalance in the market. No doubt one image on Shin's mind was that of the disgruntled Korean investor who in 1992 bit open the end of his finger and petitioned the government in his own blood demanding that the ministry take action to cause his shares to go up in value. Shin complained that foreigners unaware of Korea's Confucian traditions do not understand the high expectations people have of officials.
People expect officials to act.
Hong himself is a former finance ministry official. All the same, by early summer, it became apparent that Confucius had lost out to Adam Smith. The ministry lifted the cash deposit requirements on stock transactions, and the stock index rose once more, in spite of the world crisis over North Korea's move to develop nuclear weapons and a missile system to deliver them. But then, in Seoul, the reunification issue is too sensitive to discuss as an investment proposition, any talk of peaceful reunification only pleases bears. Hence talk of reunification is bad for the stock market.