Loose change for February 5, 2010

 Economic news 

• Ampontan suggests that the US government is getting so harsh with Toyota because they now have a sixty-percent stake in General Motors. Hmm... if that were true, I don't know if President Obama would be pushing anew for the ROK-US free-trade agreement. He is, isn't he?
• WalMArt and Target are trying to put the kibosh on Redbox's ability to buy newly released DVDs quickly and cheaply for their ubiquitous rental kiosks. 
• Samsung plans to triple its sales of "smart phones" this year. The best way to do that is to follow your customers to their cars, track them as they drive home, and then rob them, so that they'll have to come back for another. Rinse and repeat. It works for Apple. Besides, it's following, not stalking. 
• Greece, Spain, and Portugal are having major problems with their budgets, so naturally the KRW is the currency that lost 1.8 percent of its value in one day. That's the reactionary response to the Korean economy in a nutshell: When things go wrong in Korea, the Korean stock market and the currency plummet; when things go wrong in some other country, they still plummet. I'm confident, though, that it will creep back up (it had better, because all my money is riding on Korea Inc).
• At least Seoul apartment prices have gone up for the fourth week in a row (that's good for me, but bad if you're hoping to buy but haven't done so yet).

 North Korea news and stuff 

• Heads are rolling (figuratively, at least for now) in the Workers' Party over the disastrous currency revaluation scheme, while septuagenarian and octogenarian military brass are being replaced by relatively younger officers.
• Barbara Demick of the Los Angeles Times writes a good overview about North Korea's currency revaluation (what I call the Great Currency Obliteration of 2009, in case you weren't aware) and how it has been poorly received by the citizenry. 
• Another Los Angeles Times article talks about the mysteries still surrounding the final destination of the North Korean arms cache detained in Thailand.
• US President Barack Hussein Obama has decided not to put North Korea back on the list of state sponsors of terror, a list that his predecessor (George W. Bush) took North Korea off of. Joshua Stanton of One Free Korea is not happy.
• North Korea is releasing zealot Robert Park. Kushibo is having flashbacks to The Manchurian Candidate. 

 Other Korea-related stuff 

• Spy versus spy in the memory chip biz.
• Korea will spend 52 percent more on developing alternative energy in 2010.
• The Chosun Ilbo has a focus on Hungary's first professional paduk player.
• Having "temporarily" lost a member, The Wonder Girls have postponed their US tour and decided to delay plans for an upcoming English-language album. Nobody could have seen that coming. Heh heh heh.
• Will the ruling party use public servant bans on political activity as a tool to break the chinboista teachers' union?
• South Koreans are divided over abortion.

 Miscellany 

• The Los Angeles County coroner is saying that the adorable actress Brittany Murphy, who had been mixing prescription medication for seizures and over-the-counter cold medicine, died of pneumonia. Requiescat in pace, Ms Murphy.
• The iPhone has swamped AT&T's network.
• Islamic Rage Boy. What more is there to say, except that if this were Korean, it's borderline racist.
• If you like Tom Selleck, waterfalls, and sandwiches, this site is for you (HT to BJiT).