The Asian financial crisis of 1997 hit Mr Lee hard. His interior-design firm folded and he was officially branded a bad debtor. But the ensuing boom in household credit hit him harder. As banks were newly deterred from lending to businesses, they turned to individuals instead. Credit cards were peddled everywhere, on televisions and from street corners, and to everyone-including Mrs Lee. She racked up a debt of 7m won ($6,900), much of it interest owed. When she divorced him, Mr Lee, jobless, was left to foot the bill. South Korea's economic growth-spurt was built on the massive debt of its chaebol, huge industrial conglomerates. Now mounting household debt threatens to stunt it. It exceeded 1 quadrillion (1,000 trillion) won for the first time last year. And it is rising much faster than both the country's gdp and its average household income: in 2012 household debt was 1.6 times that of Koreans' annual disposable income, compared with an average of 1.3 for the oecd, a group of rich countries. Whereas affluent consumers globally have shed debt since the 2008 financial crisis, South Korea's pile has steadily grown.
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