North Korea's recent currency reform and subsequent ban on the use  of foreign currencies come at an inopportune time for citizens already facing economic stagnation, spiraling prices, and the resurgence of food shortages. Marcus Noland, deputy director of the Peterson Institute for International Economics, will explain how the measures are an attack on the market and the independence from state control it represents. Noland will also discuss whether the government's new policies might be reversed and how, if left in place, could sow popular discontent and thus foment precisely the political activity that the regime seeks to thwart.

Wednesday, January 27, 2010
11:30 AM -12:00 PM * Registration and Reception 
12:00 PM -1:30 PM * Lunch and Presentation

The Winter of Their Discontent: Pyongyang Attacks the Market

with

Marcus Noland 
Deputy Director, Peterson Institute for International Economics
Senior Fellow, East-West Center

The Korea Society
950 Third Avenue @ 57th Street, 8th Floor
(Building entrance on SW corner of Third Avenue and 57th Street)


About the Speaker:

Marcus Noland is the deputy director of the Peterson Institute for International Economics and a senior fellow at the East-West Center. He has also served as a senior economist at the Council of Economic Advisers in the Executive Office of the President of the United States, and has held research or teaching positions at Yale University, the Johns Hopkins University, the University of Southern California, Tokyo University, Saitama University, the University of Ghana, and the Korea Development Institute. Noland has authored, co-authored, or edited numerous books on the economic systems of East Asia, including Famine in North Korea: Markets, Aid, and Reform Pacific Basin Developing Countries: Prospects for the Future and Korea After Kim Jong-il (co-authored with Stephan Haggard); and Economic Integration of the Korean Peninsula (editor). His book, Avoiding the Apocalypse: the Future of the Two Koreas, won the prestigious Ohira Memorial Prize.