Most Popular
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Exports to US reach all-time high, widen gap with China
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Trump rekindles criticism: US forces defending 'wealthy' S. Korea 'free of charge'
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Opposition-led Assembly unilaterally passes bill to probe Marine's death
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[Music in drama] Rekindle a love that slipped through your fingers
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Inflation eases in April, continues bumpy ride
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Golden chance to liquidate babies’ gold rings?
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Seoul Metro to seek legal action against malicious complaints
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Illit, mired in controversy, remains on Billboard charts for 5th week
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[New faces of Assembly] Architect behind ‘audacious initiative’ believes in denuclearized North Korea
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On May Day, labor unions blast Yoon's foreign nanny proposal
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[Richard H. Thaler] Corporate citizens do well by doing good to others
Although the phrase is now somewhat out of fashion, the issue of corporate responsibility is at the heart of many of the debates on economic policies around the world. Should corporations simply maximize profits and let the invisible hand do its wonders, or do they have some obligation to be good corporate citizens as well? As with many politicized debates, this one has been captured by two extreme positions, neither of which are, to my mind, particularly sensible. At one extreme are “pro-respon
Jan. 26, 2012
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New, unneeded obstacles to abortion
A federal appeals court this month upheld a Texas law that requires a woman seeking an abortion to undergo a sonogram, forces doctors to describe that sonogram in detail to her and then requires that she wait 24 hours before she can undergo the procedure. Texas was one of five states to adopt mandatory sonogram laws last year.Proponents insist these laws are about informed consent and making sure women have all the details about the procedure. They are not. The laws are about one thing only: ere
Jan. 25, 2012
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[Robert Reich] Hubbub over ‘Bain Capitalism’
It’s one thing to criticize Mitt Romney for being a businessman with the wrong values. It’s quite another to accuse him and his former company, Bain Capital, of doing bad things. If what Bain Capital did under Romney was bad for America, the burden shifts to Romney’s critics to propose laws that would prevent Bain and other companies from doing such bad things in the future.Don’t hold your breath.Newt Gingrich says Bain under Romney carried out “clever legal ways to loot a company.” Gingrich cal
Jan. 25, 2012
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Difficult case tests lay judges
At the Saitama District Court on Jan. 10, six lay judges ― three men and three women ― together with three professional judges started to deal with not only three murder cases but also with seven other cases involving the defendant, Kanae Kijima ― fraud, attempted fraud and theft.Kijima pleaded guilty to fraud charges of swindling two men of money but pleaded not guilty to the murder charges. As to the murder charges, there are no confessions and no concrete evidence linking her to the murders.T
Jan. 25, 2012
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Korea’s tradition of propriety: Godsend for network age
In this age the complex relations developing between individuals outside of the workplace or the family, whether those that develop through online communications within organizations, or those found in social networks such as Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter, are having a profound impact on our society. Connections between people from vastly different backgrounds, who serve at different levels within organizations, can subtly, or bluntly, influence policy. Almost all actions within social networks
Jan. 25, 2012
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A ‘New Model’ for engaging North Korea
In North Korea, the king is dead, long live the king. Now what? I say we need to find a new way forward. Let me explain. At its meeting last October, the World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Council for Korea (http://www.weforum.org/content/global-agenda-council-korea-2011) called for a “New Model” for relations between North Korea and the world. That call is even more valid with the death of Kim Jong-il. I chaired that Global Agenda Council and I will present the “New Model” at the WEF’s full m
Jan. 25, 2012
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[Benedicta Marzinotto] What will banks do with the ECB’s wall of money?
BRUSSELS ― Throughout the crisis period, the European Central Bank’s behavior has been conditioned by the tension between what it can do and what it is allowed to do.The ECB is the only institution in the European Union that is able to provide unlimited funding to governments, but its governing statute prohibits government bailouts. Nonetheless, the ECB has provided large amounts of liquidity to the financial system, indirectly softening the pressure on government debt refinancing. For 18 months
Jan. 25, 2012
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U.S. forces not retreating from Europe
In planning to withdraw two of the U.S.’s four combat brigades from Europe, the Barack Obama administration is drawing on an unlikely inspiration: Donald Rumsfeld, when he was secretary of defense under President George W. Bush, wanted to do the same thing (the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan made the idea moot). Not that this will make Obama immune to partisan criticism: Howard P. “Buck” McKeon, the Republican chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, likened the administration’s proposed de
Jan. 24, 2012
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[Lee Jae-min] Who rates sovereign states?
Moody’s Investors Service, Standard & Poor’s and Fitch Ratings are the troika of U.S.-based global credit rating agencies. The roots of these credit rating agencies date back to the middle of the 1800s in the U.S. The origin of Standard & Poor’s was when Henry Varnum Poor published History of Railroads and Canals of the United States in 1860, which compiled information on railroads companies, the most capital intensive industry at the time. Their scope of information coverage expanded gradually
Jan. 24, 2012
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The bully in you and me
Bullying is nothing new, and neither is the recent surge in school violence a new global phenomenon. Ours is an educational system that generates a vicious circle of ruthless competition and for those left behind, well, there’s either one of two choices: succumb to failure or lash out at the powers that be. In the case of the former, who often become victims of bullying, it is easy to feel overwhelmed by a perceived sense of helplessness and worthlessness. These poor souls feel as if they have n
Jan. 24, 2012
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Too big to sail question...in Italian cruise ship fiasco
In 1912, the RMS Titanic, the largest and most advanced passenger liner of its day, sank in the Atlantic Ocean, reminding the world there was no such thing as an invincible ship. The Costa Concordia, a cruise ship so enormous that it is essentially a floating town, lies half submerged off the coast of Italy, making the same point today. The Titanic tragedy, which claimed some 1,500 lives, ushered in a new era in maritime safety law. A century later, the Costa Concordia debacle, in which 11 peopl
Jan. 24, 2012
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Iran begins to feel the heat of global sanctions
Blustering and fuming, Iran seems to be spoiling for war.The United States and Iran have treated each other with outright hostility for more than three decades now, ever since the mullahs captured the Iranian revolution in 1979 and then sent students to seize the American embassy. But never before has the relationship teetered so close to military conflict.Even with the atmosphere freighted with bellicosity, the threats and hostile acts keep coming. On Sunday Iran issued a stark warning, saying
Jan. 24, 2012
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[Kim Seong-kon] Fading, rising jobs in electronic age
As the world continues to be filled with more and more sophisticated, computerized and automated machines, certain jobs have inevitably begun to fade and disappear. A few days ago, I noticed a huge Blockbuster Video store near my house had closed down. The once prosperous video/DVD rental business filed for bankruptcy due to competition from Netflix, which won over customers through enticing offers such as: “Instantly watch as many movies as you want for only $8 a month!” and “Unlimited TV episo
Jan. 24, 2012
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[David Ignatius] China’s hand on Iranian spigot
WASHINGTON ― The squeeze is already beginning on Iran’s oil exports ― and guess which nation quietly reduced its purchases from Tehran this month. Why, that would be China, Iran’s supposed protector. The Chinese cut their imports from Iran roughly in half for January, trimming 285,000 barrels per day from their average last year of about 550,000 barrels per day, according to Nat Kern, the publisher of Foreign Reports, a respected industry newsletter. Iran’s reduced sales to China, its biggest oi
Jan. 20, 2012
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Trouble with private equity is privilege, not profits
Mitt Romney, the favorite to win the Republican presidential nomination, has brought the rights and wrongs of private equity to the front of U.S. politics. He once ran a private-equity firm, and he has been attacked for it even by fellow conservatives. This is a new version of an old complaint, and the quality of the discussion is not improving with age. The question to ask about private equity ― which involves taking over companies, restructuring them and selling them at a profit ― is not wheth
Jan. 20, 2012
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Noda must fully explain necessity of tax hike
The environment surrounding the administration of Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda has become harsher. The decline of the Cabinet’s approval rating, discord within the ruling Democratic Party of Japan and stalled discussions between the ruling and opposition parties are just a few of the problems it faces.Noda no longer has the leisure to continue the attitude described as “safe driving.” He needs to go on the offensive toward realizing integrated reform of the social security and tax systems, whic
Jan. 20, 2012
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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