An economy with a record-high 'increase in debt': Thinking about financial fundamental rights

When the season arrives for the announcement of quarterly results (sales and operating profit) of various companies, we often see and hear the term "largest ever" being used here and there. At such times, we sometimes wonder if it's really worth being surprised by such descriptions.

In the economic and industrial sectors, if general prices have continuously risen by even 1% and the economy's scale (total production) has also grown, it means that "most commodity prices have risen." This implies that today's prices are always the lowest.

We should not take lightly the words of investment experts who say that when we look back at the prices of stocks we bought years ago, we will always realize that "that was the best time to invest, the lowest point." The stock market is not just a matter of luck or fate.

Since the Industrial Revolution in the 1850s, human economic history has been, excluding the Great Depression in the United States in the 1930s and Japan's "lost 30 years" of economic stagnation after the 1990s, always a struggle with inflation rather than deflation.

In inflationary periods when market liquidity expands and the economy grows, stock price indices tend to rise. This means that if there is even a small but sustained increase in prices and positive economic growth (assuming no external economic shocks), the prices of various assets such as stocks and real estate will rise.

If sales volume remains constant, then rising product prices will lead to increased sales revenue, and (unless wages and other costs rise excessively) profits will also increase, as everyone can expect.

Many companies achieve "record-high" output (not in terms of production volume but market price), "record-high" sales, and "record-high" operating profits every day, month, quarter, and year, which seems like a natural occurrence.

The record-high operating profits, therefore, seem quite expected, and describing them as an "amazing event" appears somewhat odd.

Perhaps that's why several legendary American stock investors and economic scholars have stated that "there have been almost no instances in history where pessimistic forecasts about the current and future economy and finance have proven correct."

This seems to belong to the category of "factual statements."

When other conditions are equal, it's also natural for household loans (debt) to grow in line with inflation and economic expansion.

The total household loan balance of Korea's financial sector is expected to reach 1865.8 trillion KRW in the first quarter of 2026, up about 125 trillion KRW from the same period three years ago (1740 trillion KRW).

However, in this economy with "record-high" debt growth, there are socio-economic groups that find it increasingly difficult to borrow money or are forced to pay loan interest rates as high as 15%, and these are the financially vulnerable groups.

At a policy academic conference held in June 2026, the Bank Law Association (Chairman Kim Ja-bong) proposed that our society discuss the concept of a "financial basic right."

Some presenters argued for this financial basic right, suggesting that all members of society should have access to bank loans at reasonable interest rates to ensure human dignity and a decent standard of living, in addition to repayment capacity and credit rating indicators.

The idea is to eliminate exclusion from and marginalization by various financial services, predatory high-interest rates, and discrimination in opening accounts based on credit ratings, and to guarantee equal access to financial services.

Some explanations also suggested that the state has an obligation to ensure that everyone enjoys at least a minimum level of access to credit.

The discussants agreed that "the spirit of financial basic rights can be interpreted and derived from existing constitutional provisions, and if necessary, it can be gradually revised to be included in the constitution as a constitutional right."

They decided to continue discussing the issues and challenges of this complex basic right, combining legal economics, legal philosophy, freedom rights, social rights, constitutional law, and administrative law.

As the KOSPI is surging to record highs and semiconductor companies are posting record-breaking performances, we hope that discussions on financial basic rights will develop and expand constructively.