South Korea's financial prophet: Paranoid seclusions

A prophet without honour in Seoul FOR several months a blogger going by the name of Minerva, the Roman goddess of wisdom, has proved a severe irritant to South Korea’s government. He made several correct financial predictions, such as the Korean won’s sharp decline against the American dollar, and heaped scorn on President Lee Myung-bak and his finance minister, Kang Man-soo, for their handling of the economic crisis. This made him both a household name and a target for official persecution. Indeed, since January 10th Minerva, who has been revealed to be an unemployed man, Park Dae-sung, has been in detention. Riot police raided his flat, finding the 31-year-old at his screen, surrounded by financial primers. He is under arrest on charges related to a posting on December 29th, asserting that in order to support the won the finance ministry had ordered financial institutions to stop buying American dollars. The ministry denies this, and prosecutors argue that the post contravened ... (link)