Thursday, April 22, 2010

Herd Mentality In Korea? No Way!

Was that title obvious enough???

Anyway, an unnamed analyst in Seoul took a shot at Korea's "herd mentality" culture to explain how it can create bubbles in various industries, depending on what's happening at the time.

This time, it was set off by word that mosquitos are carrying a viral disease. That caused bug repellants and other related products to jump up by 50 percent over the past week.

The analyst said:

'"Koreans are susceptible to herd mentality. When their neighbors do or believe something, many of them just follow suit. I regard Internet witch-hunting, real estate speculation or regional dominance of a certain party to stem from such a perspective."

Even the country's top financial regulator warned midway through last year that herd behavior can end up generating asset price bubbles, thus wreaking havoc on the economy.'

Haha. What a slam! The article doens't say whether the analyst is a Korean or foreigner, but I like to pretend they interviewed me for the story.

No comments: