[Bbanggubneun Tajagi] Investment Frenzy Era... Where Did It All Begin?

"Hallelujah!" "I believe!" These were the words investors said to the head of an investment advisory firm before the recent foreign securities firm-triggered stock market crash. A famous celebrity who lost billions after investing through him even took the stage to praise it as a 'religion.'

It is an era of investment frenzy. Despite severe economic recession, people do not lose their desire to become 'wealthy.' Investment fields are diverse, including stocks, real estate, and virtual assets. Through information easily obtained on social networking services (SNS), people also invest in bonds and futures. They recommend investments to each other, and society and media flood out related content. No one can escape this trend. Pension funds, which immediately take responsibility for income after retirement, have become the largest 'big hands' in the stock market.

"The situation where the success or failure of asset markets and interest rate policies determine the size of disposable income and purchasing power of individuals and households has closely connected financial markets, our lives, and government policies." The book Investment-Promoting Society, written by ten economic experts including Jinbin Park, Professor of History at Kyung Hee University, and Seungwoo Kim, Researcher at Uppsala University in Sweden, contains a historical analysis and reflections on the mass investment society. It offers various approaches to understanding our current identity as economic and investing humans.

The authors explain in the book, "The formation and development of various investment systems and technologies accessible to the public suddenly took shape or transformed and penetrated our lives. In this process, many were driven into the valley of speculation. The fear of being left behind in the investment frenzy also expanded and reproduced this phenomenon."

Part 1 deals with the history of the 'origin' of mass investment in the early 20th century. Against the backdrop of the U.S. stock market, which entered the mass investment society early, it examines the historical origins and meanings of major investment strategies still used in the market today. It also introduces real estate development and speculation booms in early 20th century Joseon, Japan, and the U.S.

Part 2 focuses on how investment popularization progressed in Korea and Japan. Since the 1970s, real estate investment popularization began centered on the middle class in Korea, which led to the 'empowerment of real estate,' the authors emphasize. "The public recognized home ownership for the middle class as a social task, entered the ranks of the middle class by purchasing apartments, and came to accept asset accumulation through real estate as a natural and normal process," they state.

Part 3 points out the ongoing investment frenzy through overseas cases such as Hong Kong, China, and the United Kingdom, and contemplates what kind of cities we should live in.

This is not a book about how to get rich through investment. Instead, through exploring the agents, systems, and history that promote investment society, it offers us a new long-term perspective to understand the investment market.

The authors say, "Human desires and madness, external shocks, sudden crashes or surges due to unexpected events, and the importance of government policies show that making investment decisions solely based on economic factors, as in other areas, can be risky."

Investment-Promoting Society | Written by Seungwoo Kim et al. (10 authors) | History Criticism Publishing | 328 pages | 18,000 KRW