Chapter 248
Chapter 248
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Translator: crow
Chapter Title: Worry
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Amid the turmoil shaking the US dollar, the won wasn't unscathed either.
Compared to safe-haven assets like gold, the won couldn't avoid a sharp drop.
But the world grades on a curve, not absolute terms.
The won's decline was nothing compared to the dollar's plunge.
As a result, the won and Korean assets were overvalued beyond what they deserved.
To deflate that inflated won value as much as possible, I mobilized major sovereign wealth funds, including the national pension fund, to start scooping up US assets.
"You're saying we should invest in the US right now?"
"US assets have hit bottom today. When else would we buy them up?"
The US economy would rebound again.
A world No. 1 superpower couldn't collapse from a single dollar recycling shock.
If it could, the US would've been a corpse after the 1929 Great Depression.
With absolute confidence in the US economy, I dumped massive amounts of won-denominated assets into New York.
"Buy up everything we can."
Ah, of course, there was a blacklist.
I excluded symbolic buildings like the Empire State Building and Rockefeller Center from the purchase list.
'Buying those would pull way too much aggro from Americans.'
Even with greed, we had to play it smart and watch our step.
I explained our US asset purchases as investments in America's economic recovery.
"Korea believes in the resilience of the US economy. As proof, we'll invest another $10 billion."
"I'd like to know why Your Excellency is so confident in the US economy's recovery."
"Even in the Great Depression and World War II, America showed its strength and overcame crises. This level of trouble is nothing to Americans."
I praised America's greatness to an American reporter.
I was more than willing to lay on the lip service.
Of course, not everyone approved of my and Korea's moves.
Some in the US Democratic Party and media raised alarms about our asset grabs and started talking up the Korea threat.
"Korea is like a snake silently swallowing America. Look at their greed. From the West Coast to the East Coast, vast lands have fallen into Korean hands. Regrettably, their air raid is just getting started."
They had a point.
But it was also exaggerated.
The land we'd bought in the US totaled less than 2,000 square kilometers.
Even considering most of it was prime urban real estate, it was a drop in the bucket compared to America's 9.6 million square kilometers.
Us buying up all of America?
The US government itself wouldn't stand for it, and it wasn't even feasible.
'Time to give the hysterics their due.'
There was only one way to counter those voices.
Borrow the other side's megaphone.
I leaked to the Republicans that if they didn't like our investments in America, we'd stop the capital inflow.
The reaction was immediate.
"Without Korean capital, the dollar's value would've plummeted for sure. They nearly wrecked the country with amateur protectionism and inflation— they should reflect on that and shut up instead of spouting nonsense about blocking Korean investment."
The reason the Republicans sided with us was simple.
They were the party that liked Korea investing in America.
"Korean investment in the US strengthens economic ties between our nations."
Strengthening economic bonds with Korea was key to isolating the Soviets in the big-three power dynamic.
That was the Republicans' view of foreign strategy.
In that sense, Korea and the Republicans made great partners.
Of course, I didn't expect our honeymoon with them to last forever.
Once the Cold War wrapped up, the Republicans would bare their teeth at competitors too.
The Plaza Accord happened under Republican President Reagan, after all.
Still, the advantage was that Republicans started checking us later than the Democrats.
That window would let me balloon Korea and the EA to absurd levels.
Beyond even China in my past life.
But I wasn't assuming everything would go my way.
The Republicans might sense a threat from today's Korea and start checking us sooner.
'The sticking point is per capita GDP.'
The dollar's unimaginable crash had bloated our GDP like puffed rice snacks.
Stats agency reports even claimed per capita had topped $4,500.
And that was despite diluting the won's value by shipping money overseas in various ways.
By those numbers, we'd already surpassed 50% of US economic power.
'Announce that straight, and America would flip out.'
So there was only one option.
Reluctantly, fudge the stats.
It was a trick China in my past life loved.
The difference? Instead of inflating GDP like them, we were cooking the books to lower it.
I summoned the head of the statistics agency and gave the order.
"Pardon? Lower the GDP?"
"Cut as many items as possible from the GDP tally."
I had them exclude part-time jobs by college students and irregular workers, claiming uncertain data.
Public enterprise revenues got "adjusted" across the board.
Once we trimmed the whole dataset like that, the per capita GDP forecast dropped to a respectable level.
"$4,000 per capita?"
Of course, it was still high.
But there was no helping it.
The only ways to devalue further were rate cuts plus unlimited quantitative easing.
We couldn't pull that lever.
Competitors would bare their teeth at such blatant neighbor-beggarization.
"You Koreans think just you surviving is enough?"
America could handle it, sure.
As the world No. 1 superpower with Anglo-Saxon brothers and allies.
Regrettably, we weren't in that weight class yet.
For Korea to go full QE openly, we needed more bulk.
After fudging the GDP, I had distorted data sent to the IMF and World Bank.
"Korea's barely at $4,000?"
"It's true. Korea's economy isn't in great shape either."
It wasn't a lie.
With global trade in chaos, Korea's world No. 1 exports had taken a serious hit.
Unemployment had climbed from 3.3% to 6.5%.
But were we choking to death?
Not at all.
Exports held the top spot despite the drop, and the EA domestic market grew regardless of external shocks.
It was the resilience of the great ship Daehan, with foundations laid and pillars raised by me.
"Your Excellency, US stats forecasts are out. They're projecting US GDP at $630 billion."
"America?"
Last year's US GDP was $601.2 billion.
Factoring in inflation, America had barely grown.
Proof of how grave this dollar recycling shock was.
Our real gap with the US might've narrowed more than expected.
'Our economy might've unofficially topped 50% of theirs.'
Bubble numbers, of course.
"World Bank and IMF both released matching data."
"Washington will start viewing us as a check target sooner than I thought."
Not the Democrats—the nation of America.
If America saw us as a rival, we'd face an exhausting fight.
I'd prefer to delay that, but I had no intention of bowing to Washington to avoid it.
'Fight if we must.'
If America decided to check us, they wouldn't strangle us with naive moves like the Plaza Accord or US-Japan semiconductor deal.
Korea wasn't so dependent economically, politically, technologically, or militarily that we'd hand over our neck on their word.
If they got serious, it'd be the full-court press they used on China in my past life.
Starting with tariffs.
Then slowly building markets that edged Korea out of free trade.
It was the only way to crush a rival while minimizing self-damage.
Only one counter.
Build a 'camp.'
Like China in my past life, I'd sketched the outlines of a Third World bloc with Korea at the apex to dodge America's grip.
"Are you worried Washington will move fast?"
"No leader fears Washington's checks. Even I, Yi Seong-jun, am no exception."
Of course, as long as I was in charge, America's checks didn't scare me.
A seasoned politician with future knowledge and 25 years of rule had the savvy to handle America even at a disadvantage.
"With Your Excellency leading Daehan, we can withstand early checks from America."
"I can't hold the seat for a thousand years."
I was worried about the post-Yi Seong-jun era.
Could a successor, infinitely inferior to Yi Seong-jun, withstand America's checks?
I had no faith in unproven heirs.
Even as I prepared to step down, my relentless preparations stemmed from distrust in successors' abilities.
Once Yi Seong-jun finished all his arrangements, could I rest easy?
No way.
I'd only relax after surpassing America or eating dirt.
Until then, I could never let my guard down.
It was the fate of a leader with Earth's strongest—perhaps the world's—superpower as a potential foe.