The Korea Herald

[David Ignatius] Obama’s new national security team

Apr 18, 2011

WASHINGTON ― Economists theorize about an optimal position on the “welfare curve” ― a balance that, if changed, will make things worse. President Obama may feel the same way as he contemplates the coming round of changes to his national security team. By accident or design, Obama has assembled a roster of officials in key positions who work well together and perform their roles effectively. Most...
[Nicole Gelinas] China moves to stifle economic speech too

Apr 18, 2011

In the week and a half since the Chinese government detained artist Ai Weiwei on suspicion of “economic crimes,” Western governments and the global arts community have condemned China’s repression of free speech. Regular Americans, too, should care about China’s habit of stifling information that it doesn’t like to hear. China is applying the same habit to another type of speech, economic speech....
[Meghan Daum] Why Sarah Palin doesn’t get what she deserves

Apr 18, 2011

OK, so Sarah Palin probably isn’t running for president. She may have told Fox News’ Greta Van Susteren that she was “tempted” because she was “wondering who the heck is going to be out there with a servant’s heart willing to serve the American people.” But evidence suggests there’s not a lot to wonder about when it comes to her candidacy. Palin’s approval ratings have never been lower. A CNN po...
[Peter Singer] Bringing a universal digital public library within reach

Apr 18, 2011

MELBOURNE ― Scholars have long dreamed of a universal library containing everything that has ever been written. Then, in 2004, Google announced that it would begin digitally scanning all the books held by five major research libraries. Suddenly, the library of utopia seemed within reach. Indeed, a digital universal library would be even better than any earlier thinker could have imagined, becaus...
Have a real U.S. federal budget debate

Apr 17, 2011

U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan’s 2012 budget is the first sensible, long-term fiscal blueprint to come out of Congress in decades. You could say it’s a budget of the grownups, by the grownups, for the grownups. As such, it deserves what even President Obama says is needed, an “adult conversation” on the country’s financial health. Not that there hasn’t already been comment on Ryan’s “Path to Prosperity.” ...
Should there be a ‘fat tax’ in the United States?

Apr 17, 2011

If an individual’s body mass index isn’t a purely personal matter, what is? We have the right to choose between healthy food or junk food, even if the latter is more likely to result in obesity and related health problems. But once our choices affect others, there’s a natural conflict between individual freedom and social responsibility. In a nation where rising health-care costs and diminished a...
[Shashi Tharoor] Cricket and caution: India-Pakistan ties

Apr 17, 2011

NEW DELHI ― India-Pakistan relations ― a challenge at the best of times, and in the doldrums since the terrorist attacks on Mumbai of November 2008 ― received an unexpected boost last month from an unlikely source: cricket. When the two countries became semi-finalists in the game’s quadrennial World Cup, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh invited his Pakistani counterpart, Yusuf Reza Gilani, to...
[Glenn Garvin] Bay of Pigs offers lessons for Libya adventure

Apr 17, 2011

Rarely has the fog of war settled so quickly or as thickly as it has around President Obama’s Libyan adventure. Remember how the president promised military operations would last “days, not weeks”? That was nearly a month ago ― and now Obama’s advisers are being coy about whether the White House intends to comply with the 1973 War Powers Resolution, which sets a 60-day limit on military actions w...
[Jonathan Alter] Republican horror movie sequel hits theaters

Apr 17, 2011

Republicans jumped all over President Barack Obama’s budget speech at George Washington University as political, and they are absolutely right. It was the old Obama, the one who changed history in 2008, and he is back on his game, both thematically and tactically. The domestic debate now is much clearer and the takeaway for Republicans is out of a horror movie: Be afraid. Be very afraid. Obama ...
[Heather Grabbe and Kori Udovicki] A roadmap to improve the lives of Roma in Europe

Apr 17, 2011

BRUSSELS ― The European Union, at long last, is taking a significant step to improve the lives of Europe’s millions of Roma. Rather than proposing a grand plan for EU-level action, the European Commission’s recently released “EU framework for national Roma integration strategies up to 2020” calls on each member state to write its own plan. This approach recognizes that the most pressing needs of...
Focus deficit-cutting efforts on bigger targets

Apr 15, 2011

The recent Sturm und Drang in Washington over a possible government shutdown was just a warm-up act for the more significant budget disputes to come this year. Rather than haggling over a few billions of dollars in spending, the debate over the budget for the next fiscal year will involve trillions of dollars worth of deficits and debt. And soon after Congress adopts a budget, it will have to dec...
What now, after the rise in radiation rating?

Apr 15, 2011

Risk assessments have see-sawed between hopeful and grim, but never dire, in the month since the Fukushima nuclear complex began leaking radiation. The Japanese authorities’ caution showed how variable the nature of determining radioactive contamination was, as well as a wish to not overload the senses of a people coping with the earthquake-tsunami devastation. But it has been hard to keep the fa...
[William Pesek] Can Japan avoid a recession?

Apr 15, 2011

The International Monetary Fund isn’t known for its forecasting prowess in Asia. Even by those standards, its latest guesstimate for Japan is a standout. By the IMF’s math, a magnitude 9.0 earthquake, a 23-meter tsunami and nuclear reactors leaking radiation will barely nick growth. It now sees Japan advancing 1.4 percent this year, down from its earlier 1.6 percent prediction. That raises a ver...
[George Yeo] Nalanda and the Asian renaissance

Apr 15, 2011

SINGAPORE ― As Asia reemerges on the world stage in this century, its civilizational origins will become a subject of intense study and debate. Asians are rediscovering their own past and deriving inspiration from it for the future. This inspiration covers all fields including governance, scientific inquiry, architecture, wellness and aesthetics. A tremendous burst of creative adaptation is incre...
Asia can take care of itself

Apr 15, 2011

ASEAN and its three regional partners ― Japan, China and South Korea ― have decided to launch a surveillance mechanism in May in the light of their $120 billion currency-swap facility that was established in 2009, to ensure sufficient U.S. dollar liquidity in the event of a financial crisis caused by sudden, massive capital outflows. The basic idea of the ASEAN+3 Macroeconomic and Research Offic...