This week’s stop on our world tour - Korea. A country divided into two very different power structures since the end of WWII. Today South Korea is the maker of some of the world’s favorite exports – from Samsung TV’s to BTS. But 75 years ago it was a much different story. How the textile industry and a partnership with Bangladesh lifted the country out of poverty and paved the way for rapid economic growth.
Then later in this episode – how entrepreneurial endeavors look different on the other side of the 38th parallel. We’ll follow a woman who started her own small business selling goods in North Korea. How are the Donju, members of the affluent entrepreneurial class, faring and can capitalism exist in a highly restrictive socialist society?
Featured Episodes:
• Richard Nixon, Kimchi and the first clothing factory in Bangladesh (2013) (https://www.npr.org/sections/money/2013/11/27/247564324/episode-499-richard-nixon-kimchi-and-the-first-clothing-factory-in-bangladesh)
• North Korea's Capitalists (2017) (https://www.npr.org/transcripts/551232343)
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• Volatility
• Inflation expectations
• Capital controls
• Austerity
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This episode of Planet Money Summer School is hosted by Robert Smith. It was produced by Schuyler Swenson and Sophia Paliza-Carre and edited by Planet Money Executive Producer Alex Goldmark. It was fact-checked by Charlotte Isidore and engineered by Annlie Huang.
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