[Relief Carving] The President Who Knows His Stocks (2026.02.03)

President Lee Jae-myung is the first President of the Republic of Korea to invest in stocks.

Past presidents, too, visited banks early in their terms to sign up for funds or visited the exchange, but these were closer to shows staged for a single photograph.

President Lee was different in kind. He boldly made breaking through the 5,000 mark on the KOSPI index a presidential campaign pledge, and then achieved it just half a year into his term. This time, President Lee has signaled his intent to turn the KOSDAQ market — dismissed as a "playground for stock manipulators" — into "3000-daq."

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Broadly speaking, President Lee's stock-market stimulus measures fall into two categories: expanding liquidity and stimulating investor sentiment.

Last year, the government drew up a supplementary budget of 45.5 trillion won and handed out more than 10 trillion won in consumption coupons. Money released into the market, unable to find a proper destination amid tightened real-estate regulation, piled up in the stock market.

President Lee sent repeated signals last June making use of the idea that "investing is psychology," including remarks such as "coming back to the domestic market is a matter of intelligence ranking."

On top of this, with the expansion of domestic investment by the National Pension and other pension funds, President Lee has prepared every possible short-term stimulus measure, and the results so far have been successful. But as seen on "Black Monday," when the KOSPI's 5,000-point level collapsed like a sandcastle, the fundamental strength of the Korean stock market is weak.

Just three stocks — Samsung Electronics, SK hynix, and Hyundai Motor — account for more than 30% of the KOSPI's total market capitalization.

Of last year's 1.0% economic growth rate, the contribution of the semiconductor-centered information technology (IT) sector reached 0.6 percentage points. Losses continue to pile up across most of the remaining sectors.

The gap between the real economy and the capital market, and, even within the capital market, the gap between a tiny handful of stocks and the great majority, show no sign of narrowing.

In an economic situation where innovation and productivity have disappeared, if all that happens is a money-fueled feast, what remains in the end is nothing but extreme inflation and massive debt.

The collapse of populist governments such as those of Venezuela and Turkey has shown this all too vividly.

https://n.news.naver.com/article/005/0001829886?sid=110