Most Popular
-
1
Korea bets big on gas, oil prospects in East Sea
-
2
Girls starting school early could boost fertility rate: state-backed agency report
-
3
S. Korea to fully suspend inter-Korean military pact after NK balloon barrage
-
4
BTS set to return in Hybe's hour of need
-
5
Yoon OKs exploratory drilling for 'massive' oil, gas reserve in East Sea
-
6
[KH Explains] Hyundai eyes IPO to leverage presence in India
-
7
[Graphic news] S. Korea's children get taller
-
8
Man stabs 2 foreign residents 'for no reason'
-
9
[KH Explains] Has South Korea really struck oil?
-
10
Ministry urges doctors to end walkout, mulls processing resignations
-
[Kim Seong-kon] ‘The Taming of the Shrew’ after retirement
Some time ago, a newspaper report revealed the shocking news that some Japanese housewives were demanding a divorce from their husbands on their retirement day. According to the article, most Japanese wives quietly endure the hardships of their married life and seldom air their grievances. However, when their husbands retire, they think they are finally relieved from lifelong servitude and have every right to declare independence. Upon reading the news, we Korean husbands commiserated with the u
Oct. 21, 2014
-
Ebola in America
NEW YORK ― Until Thomas Eric Duncan brought Ebola into the United States, the disease was largely dismissed as an exotic pestilence of concern mainly to impoverished West Africa, and those who dared to volunteer there. And its transmission to two nurses responsible for Duncan’s care ― likely resulting from several breaches of medical protocol ― has focused intense scrutiny on U.S. preparedness for a possible outbreak. President Barack Obama even announced last week the appointment of an “Ebola C
Oct. 21, 2014
-
China is again slowly turning in on itself
Deng Xiaoping is back ... but only on television.This year ― the 110th anniversary of his birth ― Beijing is sparing no expense to commemorate the former leader who launched China’s modern reform era in the late 1970s, bringing decades of blazing economic growth and steady resurgence as a world power.Unsurprisingly, Deng’s mantle is being deployed for political ends. A new 48-episode documentary on his life airing on state networks draws a thinly veiled analogy between Deng and Xi Jinping, China
Oct. 21, 2014
-
[Mohamed A. El-Erian] The inequality trifecta
There were quite a few disconnects at the recently concluded annual meetings of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank. Among the most striking was the disparity between participants’ interest in discussions of inequality and the ongoing lack of a formal action plan for governments to address it. This represents a profound failure of policy imagination ― one that must urgently be addressed.There is good reason for the spike in interest. While inequality has decreased across countries, it
Oct. 20, 2014
-
No workable nuclear compromise? No deal
The latest round of negotiations over Iran’s nuclear program took place last week, pitting the United States and its European partners against the Iranian regime’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif. But only five weeks before an upcoming deadline, there are serious outstanding questions about what a viable compromise would look like.This was made clear in early October, when Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s website released an infographic reiterating 11 red lines that his negotiators
Oct. 20, 2014
-
[Clive Crook] The economics of mood control
Last week’s financial-market gyrations sent me back to one of my favorite books about the crash. Its wisdom seems freshly relevant.“Animal Spirits: How Human Psychology Drives the Economy, and Why It Matters for Global Capitalism” by George Akerlof and Robert Shiller (both Nobel laureates) was published in 2009. (I reviewed it for the Financial Times.) It was mostly written before the recession, but events didn’t make it seem out of date ― rather the opposite. The book, I find, only improves wit
Oct. 20, 2014
-
Political buffoonery: America’s greatest security threat
There are at least two things that the public expects the government to get right, even when it fails at nearly everything else: public safety and national security. The Obama administration has a responsibility to protect its citizens. There is no excuse for the failures we’re witnessing ― from the containment and eradication of Ebola to the containment and eradication of its ideological equivalent: radical Islamic extremism.As a free-market and limited-government proponent, I don’t find the go
Oct. 20, 2014
-
Ebola czar should be a general, not a politician
I’ve know Ron Klain for years, respecting him as a smart operative who understands the nexus of politics and policy. His selection last Friday by President Barack Obama as the “Ebola czar” is a bad choice that will not stop the Democrats’ political problems on this issue.It is what it appears: A political decision forced on the president by political posturing and careless talk about a crisis. It appears that Klain doesn’t even report directly to the president, but to National Security Adviser S
Oct. 20, 2014
-
Republicans pave way to all-white future
Even Senator John McCain has surrendered. A steadfast supporter of immigration reform with a pathway to citizenship, McCain essentially acknowledged yesterday in Georgia that his party’s anti-immigration forces have demolished any hope of soon legalizing the roughly 11 million undocumented immigrants in the U.S.McCain’s assessment is as unimpeachable as it is irrational. In an interview with the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, he said that, “I understand now, especially in my home state of Arizona
Oct. 20, 2014
-
The spider of finance
LONDON ― The global system of financial regulation is extraordinarily complex. Partly for that reason, it is little understood. In order to explain it to my students at Sciences Po in Paris, I have devised a kind of wiring diagram that shows the connections among the different bodies responsible for the various components of oversight. It makes a circuit board look straightforward.Many people show some spark of recognition at the mention of the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision, which sets
Oct. 19, 2014
-
[David Ignatius] Nothing to fear but panic itself
WASHINGTON ― Richard Preston, whose 1994 book “The Hot Zone” brought the Ebola virus terrifyingly alive for readers, once described how, during his research, his biohazard suit had ripped open, exposing him to a potentially fatal toxin. “I started to feel giddy,” Preston wrote in “Panic in Level 4,” a 2008 collection of essays. “It was an intoxicating rush of fear, a sensation that all I needed to do was relax and let the fear take hold, and I could drift away on waves of panic, screaming for he
Oct. 19, 2014
-
[Michael Koch] Why Korea, and the world, must protect crop diversity
With Pyeongchang currently hosting the 12th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity, Michael Koch, director of finance at the Global Crop Diversity Trust, explains why we need to act now to ensure future generations will be able to feed themselves.Speaking at the opening of the regular session of the 12th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity, which is taking place at the Alpensia Convention Center in Pyeongc
Oct. 19, 2014
-
[Shashi Tharoor] China’s Silk Road revival raises concerns
NEW DELHI ― The phrase “Silk Road” evokes a romantic image ― half history, half myth ― of tented camel caravans winding their way across the trackless deserts and mountains of Central Asia. But the Silk Road is not just part of a fabled past; it is an important feature of China’s current foreign policy. The historical Silk Road comprised an overland and a maritime route, both of which facilitated the transfer to Europe of South and East Asian goods and ideas, from Chinese tea to inventions like
Oct. 19, 2014
-
[Sohn Jie-ae] Parking lot parenting thoughts
Every weekday afternoon I sit in the parking lot of my daughter’s high school, waiting for her to finish. As anyone who has gone through this experience would agree, I am sure this is why they invented air conditioning in cars and mobile games. But this is also when I get time to reflect. My parking lot musings, if you will. Today I am thinking about why I am here. Not literally, but on a more philosophical level. What do I hope to teach my children by dragging them thousands of miles away from
Oct. 19, 2014
-
[David Ignatius] Obama pressed to escalate war
WASHINGTON ― As fighters from the Islamic State surge toward control of Anbar Province in western Iraq and the border town of Kobane in Syria, U.S. commanders and diplomats are signaling that the U.S. must expand its military operations before the extremists control even more territory. “Too few and too slow,” is the way one official characterizes efforts so far. Supporters of an expanded American role appear to include Secretary of State John Kerry and Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint
Oct. 17, 2014
-
Nobel for Charles Barkley of economics
I managed to call this year’s Economics Nobel correctly. Actually, it wasn’t difficult. Jean Tirole is a name uttered so frequently in the field that the most surprising thing about his Nobel win was that he hadn’t won the prize already. That’s how the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel works ― it’s usually a lifetime achievement award rather than an award for a specific innovation or discovery.That fact made the committee’s decision particularly hard this yea
Oct. 17, 2014
-
[Kim Kyung-ho] Greatest threat to North Korea
North Korea’s attempt last week to shoot down balloons carrying anti-Pyongyang leaflets floated by South Korean activists heightened tensions on the peninsula with the effect of somewhat alleviating Seoul’s stance.Seen from the substantial, not superficial, viewpoint, this act can be seen as vivid proof of the capitalist South’s victory over the communist North in the competition that followed the Korean War.The North had repeatedly threatened to fire on the sites where leaflets were launched, b
Oct. 16, 2014
-
In Silicon Valley greed is still good
Talented young people who want to change the world go into the tech industry, and those who just want money go to Wall Street. Right? Colin Fan, cohead of investment banking at Deutsche Bank, says it’s the other way round these days. He may have a point.Fan is the angry manager who can be seen in a recent viral video explaining to traders at Germany’s biggest bank that they have to act as though they lived in a glass house, and that cussing and boasting were out. Here’s what he said when a Finan
Oct. 16, 2014
-
What has Europe ever done for us?
When the European Union announced it was downgrading its relations with Thailand to show its opposition to the military coup in late May, the reaction from many Thais was swift and harsh. The social media were swamped with nationalistic opprobrium, with some calling for a tit-for-tat response and others going as far as to say Thailand should shrug off any diplomatic pressure as it could easily live in isolation. A noted academic even urged the military junta not to kowtow to the EU, which he sai
Oct. 16, 2014
-
[M Niaz Asadullah] Gender gap in education is result of policy priorities
Muslim countries worldwide have problems with gender equality. They dominate the bottom 10 countries in the Global Gender Gap Report, and none of the 10 most successful countries offering equal opportunities for men and women is Muslim.Girls lag behind boys in school attendance, making up 54 per cent of the out-of-school child population in the Arab states, a figure that has not changed since 2000.Of the 10 countries that fare the worst for child school attendance rates, seven are Muslim. These
Oct. 16, 2014