It's pretty bad when the unemployed know more about Int'l Economy than the...ahem...experts

[rpannier]

This guy is being charged with spreading false rumors on the internet.

Prosecutors arrest man known as ‘Minerva’

It has been found that a 30-year-old unemployed man is the anonymous Internet pundit “Minerva,” whose identity has been the subject of intense speculation for the past few months.


The prosecution arrested the man known as Minerva on Thursday on charges of spreading false rumors on the Internet. In announcing the arrest, they reported that Minerva had not lived or studied overseas, nor did he major in economics at a university, putting to rest speculation to the contrary. The prosecution said Minerva, whose major at a local two-year college was not related to economics, appeared to have acquired his knowledge of economics on his own.


Minerva was dubbed “the Internet Economic President” for the accuracy of his predictions about the collapse of Lehman Brothers as the financial crisis that began in the United States was escalating, spiraling out of control and the South Korean currency’s sharp decline in value against the U.S. dollar. He posted over 100 articles on the Internet portal site Daum, but his identity remained hidden. Some people believed that Minerva was an official somewhere in his or her 30s or 50s at a securities firm who had experience living and working overseas. Others speculated that he was in fact a senior citizen in his 70s.

Minerva quickly became famous for his sharp comments on the government’s ill-fated economic policies and the media’s incorrect news reports by using layman’s terms and statistics to make his predictions. His Web posts got tens of thousands of hits and were copied to countless Internet bulletin boards and blogs. Internet users often described Minerva’s posts as an essential reference for discussing economic issues. An Internet community site at Daum is now selling a book that is a compilation of his writings.

link:
http://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_national/332232.html