The Age of Speculative Spectacle: The Post-IMF Cultural Economy and Stock Market Gamblers

 

The remarkable success of Squid Game has not only influenced global entertainment trends but also sparked waves of financial speculation. A quick search for terms like “Squid Game thematic stocks” or “Squid Game Season 2 thematic stocks” reveals an overwhelming number of results, featuring stock lists that claim connections to Squid Game, the Korean TV industry, or Netflix—often with little more than s peculative reasoning. This phenomenon highlights a growing circuit of financialized cultural discourse, extending beyond established media like Bloomberg to include cryptocurrency exchanges such as Bithumb Korea, YouTube stock market channels, and digital investment forums. The financialization of the cultural industry has never been more pervasive, as audiences are not only scrutinized by it but also actively scrutinize and engage with it in return. Drawing on Maurizio Lazzarato’s The Making of the Indebted Man, this talk explores the evolving subjectivity of audiences within the entangled machinery of finance capitalism and the culture industry. Moving beyond conventional categories of producers and consumers, I propose a new framework for understanding how financial speculation and media consumption have become increasingly intertwined, shaping the way we engage with popular culture today.

 

 

Dahye Kim is an assistant professor of Asian Languages and Cultures at Northwestern University. Her research explores critical perspectives on the global history of media and technology, with a focus on media theory and the cultural dimensions of communication technologies in Korea and beyond. She examines the evolving significance of literacy, writing, and literary art within shifting media landscapes.