The I.G. Farben Award

… is a prize for dumbfounding political ineptness guaranteed to drive away any sensible investor. The inaugural award goes to South Korean Prime Minister Han Myung-Sook, who has done her prospective partners no favors by publicly suggesting a match between German corporate management and forced labor from North Korea … you know, the country with the concentration camps, the racial purity complex, and the gas chambers.

Here’s my prediction: German companies, with their sensitivity to their own history of using forced labor, will not move to Kaesong. If they show signs of giving this serious thought, there will be a blinding public outrage, and I personally promise my level best to fan it.