Macro investing book on the AI bubble: Post-War Investment Strategy

What kind of investing book is Post-War Investment Strategy?

Post-War Investment Strategy is a macroeconomic investing book that focuses on analyzing the skeleton and structure of the economy rather than on market forecasts. It asks how to protect your account in a market where geopolitical risk, a wobbling dollar hegemony and an AI-driven technology revolution are all colliding at once.

Global financial markets are now in the middle of a massive regime change, far beyond a simple business cycle. Geopolitical risk, the shaky dollar hegemony and a new technology revolution led by artificial intelligence are crashing into each other at the same time. In this kind of compound crisis, investors face the basic question: how do I protect my account amid asset-market bubbles and volatility?

The recently published Post-War Investment Strategy goes beyond simple market outlooks and concentrates on analyzing the skeleton and structure of the economy. It is presented as bringing together nine of Korea's top economy and investment experts, each fusing their own specialty to offer a multidimensional view.

Instead of the usual approach of relying on company fundamentals or short-term news flow, the book offers macroeconomic insight into where to place capital in the new order that will remain after the crisis.

A world economy propped up by debt, and the other side of the AI bubble

The book points out that since the 2008 global financial crisis, the world economy has expanded by relying on debt and liquidity. The 2020 COVID-19 pandemic cemented that structure even further. Massive fiscal policy and monetary easing from governments narrowed the depth of the downturn, but left fatal aftereffects: a weakened real economy and bubbles in asset markets.

The AI industry leading the market today is the strongest growth story since the internet, but it also holds the potential to be the epicenter of a bubble that sets off the next financial scare. Liquidity means how much money is circulating in the market, and when that enormous liquidity combines with optimism about technology, asset prices soar far beyond the intrinsic value of companies.

So in today's market, before anything else you need an analysis that objectively measures the scale of accumulated credit expansion behind the technology, not just how innovative the technology itself is.

Why did the real economy and finance move separately after the US-Iran war?

The book explains, through decoupling (the real economy and finance moving apart), why the market plunged early in the US-Iran war on stagflation fears, yet the real economy and the stock market soon traced different paths. In macro analysis, geopolitical variables are key factors that can flip the market's direction in one stroke.

Before the financial crisis, the stock market was merely a mirror that lagged or reflected the real economy. Now we have entered a new normal in which finance leads and drives the real economy. When asset prices rise, a wealth effect increases consumption and cushions the blow the war deals to the real economy. Without understanding this mechanism, you make the mistake of fearing the surface-level bad news of war and missing out on the recovery rally.

What is the essence of the AI infrastructure cycle?

The book sees today's AI industry as being at the start of the "installation phase," when huge amounts of capital pour in and technology infrastructure is laid. The economic-history view is that the 19th-century railway revolution and the 20th-century internet revolution also went through an installation phase, when infrastructure was built, and a deployment phase, when real economic growth appeared.

This period comes with speculative overheating, but it is also the stretch when the most explosive returns in the stock market are created. Looking at CAPEX (the money companies spend on equipment and the like for future growth), the direction is clear. Global AI infrastructure spending is expected to expand exponentially through 2026, the book says.

Understanding the structural reasons why capital is rushing beyond software into industries tied directly to physical AI, such as power equipment, nuclear energy, defense and robotics, is the heart of the portfolio strategy.

What exclusive opportunity does the Korean market hold?

The book says the Korean stock market is facing an unprecedented opportunity in the AI supercycle. To know where money is moving, you have to grasp what is driving the market now, and global AI investment requires not only cutting-edge semiconductors but also the backing of traditional core industries.

In particular, as the US-China rivalry reshapes global supply chains, the analysis is that Korean companies have secured a position to enjoy exclusive benefits from related investment. With China, the huge competitor, sidelined from the market, Korea is almost the only country that can reliably supply key memory chips such as HBM along with power infrastructure. This is strong grounds not for a short-term theme-driven rally, but for an overall improvement in the Korean market's fundamentals and a structural revaluation.

How does the book say to build a second-half 2026 portfolio?

The second-half 2026 portfolio proposed in the book is 65% Korean stocks, 30% US stocks and 5% developed markets. It starts from the premise that stock market moves are ultimately a function of interest rates, exchange rates and liquidity.

From a technical-analysis standpoint, the market has repeatedly plunged on fear right after a war breaks out, then rebounded sharply on expectations of reconstruction and explosive growth in AI demand. This is a moment that calls for a practical asset allocation strategy that builds in a volatility buffer while still participating actively in the upswing.

• Korean stocks 65%: an aggressive weighting aimed at the policy momentum of resolving the Korea discount and the AI semiconductor supercycle
• US stocks 30%: a weighting that captures the growth of global big tech
• Developed markets 5%: a weighting that complements long-term growth

Even in an environment this friendly to risk assets, spreading assets across regions and sectors with solid fundamentals is the way through an era of low growth and high volatility.

Conclusion: an investment strategy for riding the new paradigm

The conclusion I took from reading Post-War Investment Strategy is that in a great macroeconomic transition, the eye to filter out short-term market noise and see the essence decides survival. Capital markets have more resilience than physical shocks like war or economic crises. Technology keeps advancing, companies keep innovating, and in the end asset markets return to a long-term upward path.

Post-War Investment Strategy is not a mere list of knowledge but an investment bestseller offering powerful insights you can apply to real investing right away. For investors who want not only to defend against the crises ahead but to grow their assets amid structural market change, I'd call it the textbook of macro analysis that you must make your own.