Most Popular
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[AtoZ into Korean mind] Humor in Korea: Navigating the line between what's funny and not
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Yoon seeks rebound, taps 5-term lawmaker as chief of staff
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[Exclusive] Korean military set to ban iPhones over 'security' concerns
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Medical standoff deepens as doctors reject new med school plan, talks
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[Herald Interview] Why Toss invited hackers to penetrate its system
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[Graphic News] 77% of young Koreans still financially dependent
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Korean, Romanian leaders discuss defense tech, nuclear energy
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S. Korean envoys convene to navigate strategy amid Middle East tensions
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North Korea fires several short-range ballistic missiles into sea: JCS
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Samsung, SK hynix investors dump shares on Nvidia crash
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Big emitters should join a new, post-Kyoto pact
What kind of greenhouse gas emissions rules should be made after the Kyoto Protocol expires at the end of 2012?The 17th Conference of the Parties (COP17) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change opened in South Africa on Monday.The Kyoto Protocol is a set of international rules that is riddled with defects, as it obliges only advanced nations to cut greenhouse gas emissions. The Japanese government needs to maintain its stance of opposing extension of the protocol.Emerging na
Dec. 2, 2011
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Welfare recipients hit new high in Japan
The health and welfare ministry announced on Nov. 9 that the number of people on welfare receiving livelihood assistance known as seikatsu hogo (literally livelihood protection) reached 2,050,495 nationwide as of July 2011, topping the monthly average record of 2,046,646 marked in fiscal 1951, when Japan was in the midst of postwar social and economic confusion. Behind this is an increase in the number of elderly people and prolonging economic stagnation.Especially worrisome is the fact that the
Dec. 2, 2011
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[Andrew Sheng] More money than God: A guide to hedge funds
In the old days, technical books were read for one’s education, but they are so boring that you would fall asleep. You read novels instead for their drama, romance and excitement. In this fast moving world where daily events are more thrilling than fiction, books like “More Money than God” by Sebastian Mallaby make you want to turn the next page. Written by a former journalist, who today works for the U.S. Council for Foreign Relations, the book has combined blood-and-guts story-telling of the h
Dec. 2, 2011
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Women’s resistance and survival at Auschwitz
On Jan. 24, 1943, 230 French women who had been arrested for resistance activities were put on a train at Compiegne, outside Paris, and sent to Auschwitz. The youngest had just celebrated her 17th birthday; the oldest was 67. They were teachers and seamstresses, students and farmers’ wives; there was a doctor, a dentist and several editors and chemists. They were to be a lesson to other would-be troublemakers.The women were not Jewish, so they were not sent immediately to be gassed. However, the
Dec. 1, 2011
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[Jeffrey D. Sachs] Promoting services without tears
NEW YORK ― A famous claim in economics is that the cost of services (such as health care and education) tends to increase relative to the cost of goods (such as food, oil, and machinery). This seems right: people around the world can barely afford the rising health-care and school-tuition costs they currently face ― costs that seem to increase each year faster than overall inflation. But a sharp decline in the costs of health care, education, and other services is now possible, thanks to the ong
Dec. 1, 2011
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U.S. subsidies stymie wind, solar innovation
This month, the U.S. Department of Commerce launched a formal investigation into complaints, lodged by the U.S. solar-cell manufacturers, that the government of China is funneling loan guarantees, grants and subsidies to its solar-cell companies. Apparently, the Commerce Department is shocked, shocked to learn that a government would subsidize the solar industry. A few days later, the New York Times described a “gold rush” under way in the U.S. as builders of wind and solar farms cash in on gran
Dec. 1, 2011
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NATO strike can’t lead to breach with Pakistan
When NATO aircraft killed 24 Pakistani soldiers in a strike near the Afghan border on Nov. 25, U.S. press reports called it a case of “friendly fire.” That seems the wrong term. It has been some years since the U.S. and Pakistan could be accurately described as friends. The U.S. and Pakistan have a handful of common goals but far more that conflict. The U.S. wants to fight all forces opposed to Afghanistan’s government; Pakistan nurtures remnants of the Haqqani Network and the Afghanistan Taliba
Dec. 1, 2011
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[Robert Shiller] The neuroeconomics revolution
NEW HAVEN ― Economics is at the start of a revolution that is traceable to an unexpected source: medical schools and their research facilities. Neuroscience ― the science of how the brain, that physical organ inside one’s head, really works ― is beginning to change the way we think about how people make decisions. These findings will inevitably change the way we think about how economies function. In short, we are at the dawn of “neuroeconomics.”Efforts to link neuroscience to economics have occ
Dec. 1, 2011
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For better government, don’t kill all the lawyers
Most everyone hates lawyers. So it probably isn’t a surprise that many people hate law professors, too. A recent front-page article in the New York Times, much discussed in legal circles, was the latest salvo in what is now a long line of attacks depicting the legal academy as impractical and unworldly. I think the dislike, though, is a result of law professors being too much in the world. You see, law professors ― and I should disclose here that I am one ― very nearly run the world, or at least
Nov. 30, 2011
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God and man and William F. Buckley
The modern conservative movement began 60 years ago with the publication of a book by a 26-year-old first-time author. Reflecting on that work teaches us something important about the nature and trajectory of modern conservatism, about the energy that propelled the movement and about serious problems with the movement today.The book was “God and Man at Yale.” The author was William F. Buckley Jr.“GAMAY” (as conservatives often call this iconic work) was an attack on the young author’s alma mater
Nov. 30, 2011
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ROK Air Force’s role in limited, localized conflicts
So far, an all-out war launched by North Korea has been the major conflict scenario that all kinds of operational plans by the Republic of Korea and the United States have been based upon. The structure and development of South Korean forces were organized in accordance with this assumption. There has been an implicit agreement that Seoul provides massive ground forces to defend its metropolitan areas, while Washington provides high-tech support from its navy and air force to its labor-intensive
Nov. 30, 2011
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[Michael Boskin] Europe’s last best chance to get out of debt quandary
STANFORD ― The resignations of Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou and Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi have highlighted how Greece, Italy, and many other countries obscured for too long their bloated public sectors’ long-standing problems with unsustainable social-welfare benefits. Indeed, for many of these countries, meaningful reform has now become unavoidable.The social-insurance systems in Europe, as in the United States, Japan, and elsewhere, were designed under vastly different
Nov. 30, 2011
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Improving the Paris Declaration in Busan
Beginning Nov. 30, dozens of foreign aid donors and recipients will meet in Busan for several days to review the implementation of their 2005 Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness. The declaration purports to structure donor-recipient partnerships based on five principles: ownership (recipient countries, not donors, should create and “own” their development plans); alignment (donors should align their aid with those plans); “mutual accountability” between donors and recipients; “managing the ai
Nov. 29, 2011
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[Omar Ashour] Headless revolution in Egypt
CAIRO ― “The man who taught me to sacrifice my heart for Egypt is dead,” said Vivian Magdi, mourning her fiance. Michael Mosad was killed in the Maspiro area on Oct. 9, when an armored vehicle hit him during a protest called to condemn an attack on an Egyptian Church in the southern Aswan region. The protest left 24 dead and more than 200 injured ― a higher toll than that taken by the so-called “Battle of the Camels,” when former President Hosni Mubarak’s security forces and armed thugs attacked
Nov. 29, 2011
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[Park Sang-woo] Stressing the benefits of international marriages
Nowadays there are many international marriages not only in Korea, but also around the world. Since 1990 the number of men has increased more than women. So the number of international marriages has also increased and most international marriages are arranged marriages with people who live in poorer countries. Because of this, arranged marriages with people who live in other countries are looked down on. However, this is not good for Korea in this age of globalization. Eight years ago, my brothe
Nov. 29, 2011
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The euro area is coming to an end
Investors sent Europe’s politicians a painful message last week when Germany had a seriously disappointing government bond auction. It was unable to sell more than a third of the benchmark 10-year bonds it had sought to auction off on Nov. 23, and interest rates on 30-year German debt rose from 2.61 percent to 2.83 percent. The message? Germany is no longer a safe haven. Since the global financial crisis of 2008, investors have focused on credit risk and rewarded Germany with low interest rates
Nov. 29, 2011
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[Kim Seong-kon] No history is the absolute truth
What is history? Famous and wise men have time and time again pointed out the various problems with history. For example, Voltaire once said, “History is the lie commonly agreed upon,” implying there exists an unspoken agreement that history is not always reliable or truthful. He also suggested that history could be fabricated by those who wield political power. Indeed, it is well known that history is written by the victors and rulers who have power. As a result, there may be missing pages in t
Nov. 29, 2011
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Defense and democracy in America
LOS ANGELES ― The failure of the U.S. Congressional Joint Committee on Deficit Reduction to reach agreement on budget cuts now sets the stage for $1.2 trillion in automatic reductions to begin in January 2013. Should these cuts go into effect, the U.S. Defense Department, which already must implement $450 billion in reductions over 10 years, will take half the hit. But pushback has already begun, with Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta arguing that further reductions will impose “substantial risk
Nov. 28, 2011
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[Stephen P. Groff] Making development aid work
As the world’s advanced economies continue to limp toward recovery from the global economic downturn, questions are again being raised about the need for ― and value of ― official development assistance. In these times of fiscal restraint, critics are increasingly asking: Is aid worth it? Does it make a positive difference in the lives of poor people in developing countries? Or does it merely line the pockets of corrupt officials and fuel the consultancy industry in donor countries?A very positi
Nov. 28, 2011
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Do Koreans want to go it alone?
Whenever U.S. soldiers in Korea misbehave egregiously, Koreans naturally soul-search on whether USFK should withdraw. This is proper; soldiers sexually assaulting teenagers is horrific. The debate also usefully signals to the U.S. that Korea not be taken for granted. But in the end, Koreans have always hewn to the U.S., even after George W Bush famously alienated South Korea by placing N.K. on the ‘axis of evil.’ South Korea is the overwhelming beneficiary of a very one-sided relationship and te
Nov. 28, 2011