Most Popular
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Contentious grain bill put directly to plenary meeting for vote
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Yoon's approval rating plunges to all-time low
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Will tug-of-war between doctors, government end soon?
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Climate impacts set to cut 2050 global GDP by nearly a fifth
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Trilateral talks acknowledge ‘serious’ slumps of won, yen
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[Graphic News] More Koreans say they plan long-distance trips this year
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[KH Explains] Hyundai's full hybrid edge to pay off amid slow transition to pure EVs
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North Korea removes streetlights along cross-border roads with South
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Russia's denial of entry of S. Korean national unrelated to bilateral ties: Seoul official
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Farming households dip below 1m for first time in 2023
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A little diversity could go a long way for mainland China
Last week the Washington Post reported on a survey conducted last month by the University of Hong Kong which found that many more people living in the Chinese territory identify themselves as “Hong Kongers” rather than Chinese. The number of people who identifiy with their city was actually more than double the number of those who see themselves as Chinese.Chinese officials were not pleased by the results of the survey and other indicators showing that Hong Kong’s population is not moving toward
Jan. 20, 2012
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[Andrew Sheng] The natural evolution of markets as seen in Timor
Man is a social animal. The 19th-century sociologist and philosopher Georg Simmel argued that trade and exchange is “one of the purest and most primitive forms of human socialization.” Last month, while travelling through remote parts of West Timor, in Indonesia, I was able to study first-hand how rural markets operate. I could not help wondering why so-called primitive markets such as these work so well when complex financial markets can be so dysfunctional?Rural markets in East Timor are wonde
Jan. 20, 2012
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World’s worst regime may be looking at change
Among the many tantalizing questions surrounding Myanmar’s flirtation with democracy is this: Might Kim Jong-un be enticed to try something similar in North Korea? Taking stock of events in the Myanmar capital, Naypyidaw, the brand new leader of the world’s worst government might be having second thoughts about the viability of the Kim Dynasty. At least 2 million people starved during the 17-year reign of his father, Kim Jong-il, and North Korea’s economy is a disaster area. Enter Myanmar, the r
Jan. 19, 2012
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Solutions for economy and climate
At the turn of 2012, the world continues to be in the grip of a two-fold crisis: an economic downturn and widespread job losses on the one side and accelerating global warming and extreme weather events on the other. So far, Asia has been less vulnerable than other regions to the economic slump, but has been arguably the most prone to natural calamities. While both economy and climate demand urgent attention, political leaders fear that dealing with climate change will hurt recovery efforts. In
Jan. 19, 2012
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Korea and Japan ― a tale of two countries
Over the past two decades, as Japan has gradually slipped down the OECD ladder in terms of GDP per capita, Korea has progressively climbed the same ladder. It’s just a matter of time before Korea overtakes its neighbor.How could this happen?One important factor has been how the two countries have responded to crises. Japan was struck down by the collapse of its bubble economy two decades ago, and was also badly hit by the global financial crisis in 2008. Despite many calls for structural reforms
Jan. 19, 2012
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Cheetah story shows value of healthy skepticism
When he died recently at age 80, Cheetah the chimp received respectful obituaries across the globe. This seemed only fitting for a star in the 1930s Tarzan films with Johnny Weismuller and Maureen O’Sullivan. Cheetah was the world’s most famous non-human primate. (His only serious rival, King Kong, was a fictional character.) No less an authority than Turner Classic Movies host and prominent film historian Robert Osborne weighed in on Cheetah’s cinema legacy: “He was a major star. He was one of
Jan. 19, 2012
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If calendars change, end of world can’t come too soon
Please excuse me if you’ve already read about this ― I’m always the last guy to know ― but apparently some people are unhappy with the calendar. In other calendar news, the world apparently is going to end next Dec. 21, according to the Mayan calendar.About this latter point, apparently many people in pseudo-scientific circles have been worrying about it for decades. Me, I only began to worry about it after seeing a John Cusack movie on cable.The deal is that the Mayan “Long Count” calendar, whi
Jan. 19, 2012
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[Dominique Moisi] Resilience of democratic system
PARIS ― Is democratic time too slow to respond to crises, and too short to plan for the long term?At a time of deepening economic and social crisis in many of the world’s rich democracies, that question is highly relevant. In Italy, for example, Prime Minister Mario Monti has the necessary and legitimate ambition to carry out comprehensive reform. He is both competent and honest, but faces a quasi-structural impediment: whereas leaders once had three years to convince voters of their policies’ b
Jan. 19, 2012
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U.S. carries King’s spirit with global push
Even Martin Luther King Jr., the man the U.S. honors today (Jan. 16), had his blind spots. The circle of human rights he gave his life to expand didn’t include everyone. Left out, for instance, were gay men and lesbians. One of King’s most laudable attributes, however, was his ability to evolve and grow, and so we imagine that were he alive today he would endorse the efforts of the Obama administration to help bring basic freedoms and protections to gay people the world over. According to a rece
Jan. 18, 2012
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[Nouriel Roubini] Growth to slow despite signs of life
NEW YORK ― Macroeconomic indicators for the United States have been better than expected for the last few months. Job creation has picked up. Indicators for manufacturing and services have improved moderately. Even the housing industry has shown some signs of life. And consumption growth has been relatively resilient.But, despite the favorable data, U.S. economic growth will remain weak and below trend throughout 2012. Why is all the recent economic good news not to be believed?First, US consume
Jan. 18, 2012
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Mideast talks: Flicker of light amid the gloom
Sometimes, important news events manage to sneak through under the radar. That has happened many times in the Arab-Israeli conflict, which usually receives far too much media attention, often with damaging consequences.Ambitious efforts to forge peace have often cracked under the red-hot spotlight, where negotiators and politicians make vows and promises they later find difficult to retract. But quieter, behind the scenes activities have a history of producing happy surprises.Of course, quiet ef
Jan. 18, 2012
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Courting Episcopalians
In a provocative act with religious and cultural implications, Pope Benedict XVI has created an ordinariate ― similar to a diocese ― for disaffected Episcopalians who are converting to Roman Catholicism. It will be headed by a married former Episcopal bishop, and it will allow congregations that make the switch to retain aspects of the Anglican liturgy, including the majestic Book of Common Prayer. The defection of Episcopalians en masse might seem of interest only to students of religion, but i
Jan. 18, 2012
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[Robert Reich] Public goods fall as share of GDP
Meryl Streep’s eerie reincarnation of Margaret Thatcher in “The Iron Lady” brings to mind Thatcher’s most famous quip, “There is no such thing as ‘society.’” None of the dwindling herd of Republican candidates has quoted her yet, but they might as well considering their unremitting bashing of everything public.A society is embodied most visibly in public institutions ― public schools, public libraries, public transportation, public hospitals, public parks, public museums, public recreation, publ
Jan. 18, 2012
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Look at jobs before you leap on older retirement
Has the ailing economy forced older workers to delay their retirement? The conventional wisdom certainly suggests so. A recent front-page story in the Washington Post was headlined: “Ranks of older workers swelling: Data show employment surged among those 55 and over since recession.” The reality, though, is more complicated. The financial crisis caused more workers to want to delay retirement, but the labor market limited their ability to do it. The net effect of these opposing supply and deman
Jan. 18, 2012
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U.S. can nurture Arab Spring’s economic roots
Saturday (Jan. 13) marked one year since uprisings in the Arab world for the first time extirpated an autocrat: Tunisia’s Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali. Tunisians marked the anniversary by commemorating Mohamed Bouazizi, the young fruit vendor who sparked the Arab Spring when he set himself afire in front of a government office after police confiscated his cart. Today, it’s worth remembering that as much as the region’s rebellions are about the yearning for political freedom, they are also about the d
Jan. 17, 2012
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[Daniel Fiedler] Crime and punishment in Korea
A few months back a young U.S. soldier was sentenced to 10 years in jail for the brutal rape of an 18-year-old Korean woman. Despite the court’s statement that Korea, as America, was harsh in its punishment of such offenders, the punishment struck most Americans as too lenient considering the nature of the assault. The local papers, perhaps in an effort to quell any suspicion of lenient or unequal treatment, quickly pointed out that the soldier’s sentence was comparable in length to that of a Ko
Jan. 17, 2012
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Wall Street’s justice is a kangaroo court
There has been a fair amount written recently about various institutional cartels that are thriving in the U.S. despite antitrust laws designed to prevent their existence. My previous column compared Wall Street’s few remaining investment banks to a cartel, with explicit pricing power over its hundreds of thousands of customers, an advantage that will only grow greater as the economy improves and the number of thriving banks continues to diminish. Likewise, Joe Nocera, a columnist for the New Yo
Jan. 17, 2012
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Margaret Thatcher and the plague of fake female empowerment
Two items have recently burst onto the media scene: a movie called “The Iron Lady” about one of the greatest women in history ― former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher ― and a growing European recall of breast implants in danger of exploding. I wonder what the former would say about the latter. Did it ever cross Thatcher’s mind that women’s lives could be meaningfully enhanced by surgically strapping gel packs to their chests? How did women get from Thatcher to this?Any such unfortunate
Jan. 17, 2012
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[Kim Seong-kon] Physical appearances and speaking foreign languages
Does one’s physical appearance have something to do with the language(s) he is expected to speak? Perhaps it does. A few weeks ago, I gave a talk on Korean culture at the State University of New York at Buffalo. I talked mainly about the positive elements of South Korean culture, such as the enormous popularity of hallyu, the remarkable success of Samsung, LG and Hyundai in the American market, and the bright prospect of globalizing Korea. Borrowing from CNN.go.com, I even introduced, “50 Reason
Jan. 17, 2012
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You can’t fake youth ― don’t even try
If you’re around my age, which can be defined as “too old for work-study but too young for cremation,” you might already know what I’ve only recently learned: you can pretend to be older but you cannot pretend to be younger.And yet entire industries, magazine empires, advertising conglomerates and the global conspiracy of Spanx manufacturers are trying to convince women otherwise.At one point, I loved looking older than my years. Didn’t we all once love not getting carded at bars when our friend
Jan. 16, 2012