From business journalist Daniel Gross in today’s Slate Magazine:  Do Starbucks spell financial doom?  Gross connects the density of Starbucks in a country’s financial capital with the catastrophic financial losses of the past few weeks.

My tentative theory: Having a significant Starbucks presence is a pretty significant indicator of the degree of connectedness to the form of highly caffeinated, free-spending capitalism that got us into this mess. It’s also a sign of a culture’s willingness to abandon traditional norms and ways of doing business (virtually all the countries in which Starbucks has established beachheads have their own venerable coffee-house traditions) in favor of fast-moving American ones. The fact that the company or its local licensee felt there was room for dozens of outlets where consumers would pony up lots of euros, liras, and rials for expensive drinks is also a pretty good indicator that excessive financial optimism had entered the bloodstream.

If this is true, Seoul is in for some bad times; there’s a whopping 172 locations here, with nearly another hundred throughtout the rest of the country.  Better downgrade to a grande.