Most Popular
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Top 4 conglomerates convene strategy meetings to navigate uncertainties
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[AtoZ into Korean Mind] Korea's broken ladder of social mobility
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Yoon visits ancient Uzbek city, wraps up Central Asia trip
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N. Korean military's construction activities spotted inside DMZ: source
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Doctors to go on indefinite walkout as government rejects final demands
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[Weekender] IV drips: A quick energy shot for overworked Koreans
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Yoon returns amid tensions over Putin's Pyongyang visit
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[Drama Tour] Follow Suwon’s fortress to find traces of ‘Lovely Runner’
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[KH explains] Why Korean battery companies are key to Tesla's 2170 upgrade strategy
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Putin’s Pyongyang trip highlights need for bond in isolation
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[Meghan Daum] 2012’s pop song for grads: You are not special
Every year around this time, a few notable lines from a few notable commencement speeches start insinuating themselves into the canon of “words to live by.” Recent favorites include Steve Jobs’ 2005 speech at Stanford (“Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life”). Then there was Stephen Colbert’s 2006 address at Knox College about “saying yes.” Also in 2005 was David Foster Wallace’s now-enshrined speech at Kenyon College, which discussed freedom, among other things, and
June 28, 2012
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Don’t count out Facebook’s business model just yet
Facebook Inc.’s disastrous initial public offering has led to an increasing consensus that the social networking site was overpriced and that its business model is flawed. Some attribute the debacle to issues raised in the company’s prospectus, such as the difficulty of monetizing mobile technology. Others have pointed to the slow growth in advertising revenue or questioned Facebook’s strategy of collecting vast quantities of data from its networked users to enable customized ads. Yet the pillar
June 28, 2012
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[Dominique Moisi] Emerging markets’ EU problem
PARIS ― From Hong Kong to Sao Paulo, and all points between, one word dominates all others among big investors: Greece. Will the Greeks remain in the eurozone? What will happen to the European Union and the global economy if they do not?Until recently, Europe was a sort of mirror that confirmed for the major emerging economies the spectacular nature of their own success. They could contrast their high growth rates with Europe’s high levels of debt. They could oppose their “positive energy” with
June 28, 2012
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[David Ignatius] A cautious backgrounder on leaks
WASHINGTON ― It’s hard for a journalist to be objective on the subject of leaks, a bit like asking a lawyer if he thinks litigation is a good method for resolving disputes. People in the news business always have a bias toward more information, even on sensitive subjects involving intelligence policy. So the reader should discount for my inherent bias in favor of informing the public, and of the process that leads to disclosure ― namely, leaks. We are in a new debate about leaks, flowing mainly
June 27, 2012
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Is your couch cushion trying to kill you?
Imagine if government officials knew that certain chemicals were hazardous enough to cause health problems as serious as cancer and neurological defects, yet were largely powerless to restrict them.That, in a nutshell, is the state of chemical regulation in the U.S. On paper, the Environmental Protection Agency has the authority to regulate or ban toxic substances. In practice, the agency faces so many hurdles that it hasn’t tried to do so since it made an ill-fated run at asbestos in 1991.More
June 27, 2012
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Court order serves democracy in Pakistan
ISLAMABAD ― On June 19, in what it called a “short order,” Pakistan’s Supreme Court removed Syed Yousaf Raza Gilani as the country’s prime minister, a post that he had held for more than four years ― longer than any of his 16 predecessors. For those who favor democracy in Pakistan, the court’s decision is cause, not for concern, but for celebration.Gilani had been convicted weeks earlier of contempt of court, after he refused to comply with a court order directing him to write to Swiss authoriti
June 27, 2012
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Somali piracy: A threat and an opportunity for major rival powers
The coasts of Somalia and the Gulf of Aden have been home for some of the worst acts of piracy for years, costing lives and billions of dollars in damage every year and threatening Indian Ocean trade and shipment in one of the most vital trade routes in the world. But this part of the world is also emerging as an area of cooperation between (sometimes rival) countries and an opportunity to project power for others. Whether it is the U.S. Navy rescuing Iranian fishermen, or Iranian naval forces r
June 27, 2012
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[Kim Myong-sik] Old pastor’s belated repentance over son’s succession
― Archbishop Yeom Soo-jung was inaugurated as the head of the Catholic Seoul Archdiocese, succeeding Cardinal Chung Jin-suk in a mass at Myeongdong Cathedral. ― Pastor Emeritus Kim Chang-in of the Chunghyun Church in Seoul made a public repentance for his role in appointing his son Kim Sung-gwan as head pastor of the church, the largest congregation in the “Hapdong” sect of the Korean Presbyterian denomination, in 1997. ― The General Assembly of the Buddhist Jogye Order revised several regulatio
June 27, 2012
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[Lee Jae-min] Entitlement to a perfect vacation?
Koreans work long hours. In the eyes of foreigners, Korea is a country of hard-working people, and an epitome of work ethic. A recent OECD survey says that Koreans work 2,193 hours a year, while the OECD average is only 1,749 hours. As “dynamic” as the country is in many different ways, there is simply too much work to be done with a streamlined workforce. On top of that, the general unwritten rule of the office is that people stay in the office at least until the boss of the section calls it a
June 26, 2012
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George Zimmerman case and the pre-trial system
Proceedings in Florida’s case against George Zimmerman for the tragic shooting death of Trayvon Martin have recently provided an object lesson in how the institution of bail is supposed to work ― but almost never does.Recently Zimmerman’s wife was charged with perjury for allegedly lying at her husband’s bail hearing in April; she testified that the couple was broke, which prompted the court to set a low bond. But since then, prosecutors have alleged that, at the time of the hearing, the Zimmerm
June 26, 2012
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Redefining sustainable development for megacities
One of the most striking changes at Rio+20, compared to the original 1992 Earth Summit, is the extensive discussion of population issues. In part, this is driven by the fact that many developing countries, including the BRICs, are seeking to redefine what sustainability means with their generally rapid annual growth rates, and high population growth which is estimated to see world population rise from around 7 billion today, to between 8 billion and 11 billion by 2050.This reminds us of the mass
June 26, 2012
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State, market and money
Joseph Yam’s paper on “The Future of the Monetary System in Hong Kong” caused quite a stir this month. Irrespective of what happens to the Hong Kong dollar peg, the fundamental thrust of Joseph’s argument is irrefutable ― that no fixed exchange rate system is consistent with sustainable budgetary deficits. This is the major lesson learned from the current European crisis and was bitterly learned in the last Asian financial crisis. Hence, I interprete Joseph’s remarkable essay as a reminder that
June 26, 2012
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[Kim Seong-kon] When humans are worse than the machines they make
As machines increasingly become an indispensable part of human lives, we often wonder: “What is the relationship between men and machines? Are they mutually exclusive or reciprocally supplementary?” We also wonder, “What would the differences between humans and robots be if the latter was made of human blood and flesh?” In fact, machines are things we cannot live without, and yet can be harmful and dangerous if misused. Thus we can neither simply dismiss machines, nor be too fascinated by their
June 26, 2012
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[Meghan Daum] Really? Is Obama the first gay president?
It’s been a month since President Obama announced his support for same-sex marriage and was declared, on the cover of Newsweek, “the first gay president.” That’s an eternity in politics, but Obama’s recent swing through California , which included a Beverly Hills fundraiser sponsored by the LGBT Leadership Council and a $25,000-per-plate dinner hosted by “Glee” creator Ryan Murphy, got me thinking about his gayness all over again.Make that his ungayness. It’s not just that the president was clue
June 25, 2012
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[Robert B. Reich] Why U.S. can’t get out of first gear
Rarely in history has the cause of a major economic problem been so clear yet have so few been willing to see it.The major reason this recovery has been so anemic is not Europe’s debt crisis. It’s not, as right-wing economists tell us, because taxes are too high on corporations and the rich, safety nets are too generous to the needy, and regulations on business are too onerous. It’s not even, as some liberals contend, because the Obama administration hasn’t spent enough on a temporary Keynesian
June 25, 2012
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Divorcing Pakistan is in Washington’s interests
The history of U.S.-Pakistani relations is one of wild swings between feigned friendship and ill-disguised mistrust. When the United States needs Pakistan, Washington showers Islamabad with money, weapons and expressions of high esteem. Once the need wanes, the gratuities cease, often with brutal abruptness. Instead of largesse, Pakistan gets lectures, with the instruction seldom well received.The events of 9/11inaugurated the relationship’s most recent period of contrived warmth. Proximity to A
June 25, 2012
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Taiwan is the only casualty of war on U.S. beef imports
Su Tseng-chang, the newly elected chairman of the Democratic Progressive Party, adopted a “scorched earth” strategy to continue to ban American beef and beef products containing the leanness-enhancer ractopamine, though he certainly didn’t seem to know what that strategy actually was. A scorched earth strategy, made world-famous by Joseph Stalin who applied it to stop Nazi Germany’s invasion during World War II, is a military strategy or operational method which involves destroying anything that
June 25, 2012
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[Jeffrey Frankel] Which eurobonds could be a solution to the crisis?
OSLO ― Any solution to the eurozone crisis must meet a short-run objective and a long-run goal. Unfortunately, the two tend to conflict.The short-run objective is to return Greece, Portugal, and other troubled countries to a sustainable debt path (that is, a declining debt/GDP ratio). Austerity has raised debt/GDP ratios, but a debt write-down or bigger bailouts would undermine the long-term goal of minimizing the risk of similar debt crises in the future.Long-run fiscal rectitude is the only wa
June 25, 2012
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Welfare cuts won’t solve Japan’s debt problem
Last month, when popular Japanese comedian Junichi Komoto was discovered to have arranged for his mother to collect welfare payments ― despite the fact that he earned 50 million yen ($633,000) a year ― there was a national outcry.Politicians joined talk-show hosts in criticizing him. There was nothing funny, they argued, about people allowing their relatives to claim welfare at a time when the ranks of the poor were growing and the government was struggling to reduce the national deficit.Japan’s
June 24, 2012
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[Hans-Werner Sinn] The European banking union?
MUNICH ― In blatant violation of the Maastricht Treaty, the European Commission has come forward with one bailout plan after another for Europe’s distressed economies. Now it wants to socialize not only government debt by introducing Eurobonds, but also banking debt by proclaiming a “banking union.”Socializing bank debt is both unjust and will result in a future misallocation of resources. Socialization of bank debt across borders implies that a country’s private borrowing costs are artificially
June 24, 2012