Most Popular
-
1
Inflation eases in April, continues bumpy ride
-
2
Russia sent more than 165,000 barrels of refined petroleum to N. Korea in March: White House
-
3
Key suspects grilled over alleged abuse of power in Marine death inquiry
-
4
Seoul alerts overseas missions to NK terror threats
-
5
[Graphic News] Number of coffee franchises in S. Korea rises 13%
-
6
S. Korean children, teens grow taller, mature faster than before: study
-
7
Some junior doctors are returning: Health Ministry
-
8
Public backlash against division of Gyeonggi Province under 'corny' name
-
9
Army takes group action against Hybe for neglecting BTS
-
10
[Robert J. Fouser] AI changes rationale for learning languages
-
Foreign Koreanness captured in the movies
With the recent release of the first two trailers for “Papa,” it looks like mainstream Korean cinema will continue to wrestle with the issue of immigration and multiculturalism into the new year. As new as this theme may seem for Korean film, “Papa” actually follows in the footsteps of last year’s very successful “Wandeuki” (English title: “Punch”) and 2010’s almost equally successful “Banga Banga” (English title: “He’s on Duty”), as well as a string of independent films that addressed the same
Jan. 5, 2012
-
Malcolm Gladwell test has Japan turning Chinese
If you want to silence a room filled with Japanese politicians, suggest they should learn from China. The conventional wisdom favors the flip side of this dynamic: China should be studying Japan’s playbook. Japan, after all, is an example of both what China needs to do (create a vibrant domestic economy and high living standards) and what it mustn’t (slide into bad-loan crises and deflation). Yet I have one word for Japanese policy makers who dismiss the idea they should heed China’s example: Sh
Jan. 5, 2012
-
[Naomi Wolf] The prospects for global protest movements in 2012
NEW YORK ― What does the New Year hold for the global wave of protest that erupted in 2011? Did the surge of anger that began in Tunisia crest in lower Manhattan, or is 2012 likely to see an escalation of the politics of dissent?The answers are alarming but quite predictable: we are likely to see much greater centralization of top-down suppression ― and a rash of laws around the developed and developing world that restrict human rights. But we are also likely to see significant grassroots reacti
Jan. 5, 2012
-
Child labor worldwide and 1930 Tariff Act
The scourge of child labor has proven difficult to eradicate. The International Labor Organization estimates that 215 million children are still being exploited for work, much of it hazardous. In recent years, the fair-trade movement has presented itself as an answer, offering, at a premium, goods and commodities certified to have been produced without exploitation. It is thus all the more appalling that a fair-trade program in Burkina Faso has been shown, in an investigation published in Bloomb
Jan. 4, 2012
-
After tumult of 2011, here are some global hotspots to watch in 2012
Could the world in 2012 surprise us more than it did in 2011? Certainly, after Japan’s earthquake, the Middle East’s upheavals and Osama bin Laden’s death, the bar on shockers will be high. The known unknowns for 2012 already form a daunting list: the fate of the euro zone; the war in Afghanistan and the “peace” in Iraq; turmoil in Syria, Egypt and across the Middle East; Iran’s nuclear-weapons program; Pakistan’s chronic instability; Kim Jong-un’s succession and China’s soft landing, to name a
Jan. 4, 2012
-
Ron Paul’s surge may cause headache for GOP
Mitt Romney, who as governor of Massachusetts turned to John Sasso for help in getting a health- care bill through the state legislature, may want to solicit the Democratic operative’s advice again, this time on how to handle Ron Paul. Even before the voting started in Iowa on Jan. 3, Romney was a prohibitive favorite to win the Republican nomination, a 77.2 percent probability as of Dec. 31, according to InTrade.com, an online betting service. Texas Congressman Paul, with a committed following,
Jan. 4, 2012
-
Two Models for Europe
MUNICH -- Interest rates for public debt within the eurozone have spread once again, just as they did before the introduction of the euro. Balance-of-payment disparities are steadily increasing. The sovereign-debt crisis is eating its way from the periphery to the core, and the exodus of capital is accelerating. Since the summer, 300 billion euros, in net terms, may well have fled from Italy and France.The printing presses at the Banque de France and the Banca d’Italia are working overtime to ma
Jan. 4, 2012
-
[J. Bradford DeLong] America’s financial leviathan
BERKELEY – In 1950, finance and insurance in the United States accounted for 2.8 percent of GDP, according to U.S. Department of Commerce estimates. By 1960, that share had grown to 3.8 percent of GDP, and reached 6 percent of GDP in 1990. Today, it is 8.4 percent of GDP, and it is not shrinking. The Wall Street Journal’s Justin Lahart reports that the 2010 share was higher than the previous peak share in 2006.Lahart goes on to say that growth in the finance-and-insurance share of the economy ha
Jan. 4, 2012
-
America’s financial leviathan
BERKELEY ― In 1950, finance and insurance in the United States accounted for 2.8 percent of GDP, according to U.S. Department of Commerce estimates. By 1960, that share had grown to 3.8 percent of GDP, and reached 6 percent of GDP in 1990. Today, it is 8.4 percent of GDP, and it is not shrinking. The Wall Street Journal’s Justin Lahart reports that the 2010 share was higher than the previous peak share in 2006.Lahart goes on to say that growth in the finance-and-insurance share of the economy ha
Jan. 4, 2012
-
[Hans-Werner Sinn] Two models for EU in the absence of capital control
MUNICH ― Interest rates for public debt within the eurozone have spread once again, just as they did before the introduction of the euro. Balance-of-payment disparities are steadily increasing. The sovereign-debt crisis is eating its way from the periphery to the core, and the exodus of capital is accelerating. Since the summer, 300 billion euros, in net terms, may well have fled from Italy and France.The printing presses at the Banque de France and the Banca d’Italia are working overtime to mak
Jan. 4, 2012
-
U.S. can help end child labor worldwide by amending 1930 Tariff Act
EditorialBloombergThe scourge of child labor has proven difficult to eradicate. The International Labor Organization estimates that 215 million children are still being exploited for work, much of it hazardous. In recent years, the fair-trade movement has presented itself as an answer, offering, at a premium, goods and commodities certified to have been produced without exploitation. It is thus all the more appalling that a fair-trade program in Burkina Faso has been shown, in an investigation p
Jan. 4, 2012
-
After tumult of 2011, here are some global hotspots to watch in 2012
Could the world in 2012 surprise us more than it did in 2011? Certainly, after Japan’s earthquake, the Middle East’s upheavals and Osama bin Laden’s death, the bar on shockers will be high. The known unknowns for 2012 already form a daunting list: the fate of the euro zone; the war in Afghanistan and the “peace” in Iraq; turmoil in Syria, Egypt and across the Middle East; Iran’s nuclear-weapons program; Pakistan’s chronic instability; Kim Jong-un’s succession and China’s soft landing, to name a
Jan. 4, 2012
-
[Daniel Fiedler] Dishonor in the Korean courts
A license to practice law opens many doors in life. A lawyer can choose to open a private practice, to work in business, to teach as a law professor, to work as a prosecutor protecting society from criminals, to work at an NGO protecting the environment or the less fortunate, or, for the chosen few, to work as a judge. Many lawyers often aspire to a judgeship as the position is one of the more honorable ways to use their legal education and license. In America judges are referred to as “your hon
Jan. 3, 2012
-
New Year’s resolution: No major overhauls
I’ve been making the same New Year’s resolutions since I was 11: be nicer, get organized and lose weight. And although I still have friends who speak to me, can easily locate 1,392 pencils in my office without searching and am not yet being hauled around by a winch, I haven’t exactly exceeded my expectations.In the spirit of new beginnings, and yet aware that, if certain fringe groups are correct, the world will end before I pay off my 2011 Visa bills, I’d like to propose a new vision for New Ye
Jan. 3, 2012
-
[Meghan Daum] Mitt Romney’s dog days less seedy than others’
Surely you’ve heard the story about Mitt Romney’s dog. If you haven’t, just wait. The more desperate the GOP primary campaign gets, the more likely you are to hear it again.In 1983, a 36-year-old Romney and his wife and five young boys piled into the family station wagon for a 12-hour drive from Boston to Lake Huron in Canada. As was the custom, Seamus, their Irish setter, rode in a crate strapped to the top of the car.Somewhere along the way, the dog began to experience, shall we say, digestive
Jan. 3, 2012
-
Job creation is price for new U.S. health law
I am not an expert on health-care policy, but I do know something about job creation. So when a House Oversight and Government Reform subcommittee asked me to testify about the effect on employers of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, sometimes known as Obamacare, I thought I could offer some insights. As I told the committee in a July 28 hearing, it is critical that Congress does a good job of balancing the benefits of new legislation against the costs of that legislation. That pro
Jan. 3, 2012
-
[Kim Seong-kon] South Korea’s prospects in the Year of the Dragon
As the New Year dawns, people are concerned about what will happen on the Korean Peninsula in 2012. Rumors say that Mount Baekdu in North Korea may erupt soon, possibly in 2012. They say the clock is ticking and the eruption will bring about disaster affecting the whole peninsula. With Kim Jong-il’s abrupt death due to a heart attack this past December, North Korea’s situation, too, seems quite uncertain and nebulous in the New Year. In South Korea, parliamentary and presidential elections are s
Jan. 3, 2012
-
Mexico’s strengths still shine through the gloom
The news from Mexico, in recent years, has most often been bad. For a while, it was largely reports of corruption, electoral fraud and economic crisis. These days, it’s all about crime and insecurity. The country hasn’t been given sufficient credit for the good news it has generated since the 2000 elections broke the 71-year hegemony of a single party: the Institutional Revolutionary Party, better known as the PRI. Neither the international press nor we Mexicans have fully acknowledged what has
Jan. 2, 2012
-
Victims’ tears for dictators honor a shared past
I was born in China in 1976, just a few months before the death of Mao Zedong. So when I saw footage of thousands of North Koreans in tears after the death of Kim Jong-il, their leader, two thoughts hit me hard. One: They must be brainwashed. And two: Were we Chinese that brainwashed under Mao? Curious, I called my mother in Shanghai. Both of my parents were survivors of Mao’s brutal Cultural Revolution. Like countless others, they were taken out of urban schools and sent to rural areas to be “r
Jan. 2, 2012
-
[Howard Davies] London’s souring relations with the eurozone
LONDON ― Ever since the United Kingdom joined the European Economic Community in 1973, after the French withdrew Charles de Gaulle’s veto of its membership, Britain’s relationship with the European integration process has been strained. The British are reluctant Europeans, for historical and cultural reasons.For centuries, British foreign policy strove to avoid permanent European entanglements; but, most importantly, it aimed to prevent a single continental power from achieving dominance ― espec
Jan. 2, 2012