Daily Inspiration Quote by Kim Dae Jung

A little clunky in phrasing, the line still lands with the force of a verdict: Asia's crisis wasn’t just bad luck or speculative panic, it was institutional. Kim Dae Jung is doing something leaders often do in moments of upheaval - choosing a story of causation that doubles as a mandate. By naming “lack of market economy” as the “major cause,” he isn’t only diagnosing; he’s pre-authorizing painful reforms as the rational, even inevitable, response.

The hedges (“I think,” “you know”) read less like uncertainty than diplomacy. In the late-1990s aftermath of the Asian Financial Crisis, assigning blame was volatile: too much candor could inflame domestic resentment, too much deflection could spook foreign lenders. Kim’s softer register lets him deliver a hard message without sounding like a lecturer taking orders from Washington. The subtext is reassurance to international capital - Korea will play by globally legible rules - while signaling to domestic power brokers that the old model (state-directed credit, cozy conglomerate-state ties, opaque governance) is now politically indefensible.

“Market economy” is also a rhetorical shortcut, a brand name for an entire package: transparency, competition, corporate governance, independent regulation. Kim’s intent is strategic: shift public anger away from abstract “global markets” and toward reformable local structures. It’s accountability framed as modernization, turning crisis into a lever for legitimacy.