[Grace Kao] K-pop 'fanmeetings' and collective nostalgia

The term “fan meeting” ought to be self-evident. It’s an event where artists meet their fans, but don’t fans and artists meet at a traditional concert? Perhaps one imagines a “meet and greet” event where you pay extra for the opportunity for a photo or to say hello to your favorite artist. In the world of K-pop, a “fanmeeting” (one word) refers to an event with a very unique format. My husband and I just attended the VIXX Starlight 6th Fanmeeting

June 4, 2024

[Yoo Choon-sik] Value-up program fails to lift stocks

South Korea’s stock prices fell for the past two consecutive months, pushing the main board’s benchmark index below its starting point for this year and faring worse than many indices in major countries worldwide. Moreover, the disappointing performance of the country’s share prices contrasts with some signs of improving economic growth in recent months. The Korea Composite Stock Price Index, or Kospi, fell 2.1 percent in May after losing 2 percent in April. This follows a st

June 3, 2024

[Daniel DePetris] China’s message to Taiwan’s president

Last week, Taiwan got a new president. Lai Ching-te, also known as William Lai, was sworn in after a rough and tumble campaign, succeeding his old boss, former President Tsai Ing-wen. Elections in Taiwan are always a sore spot for China, which claims the self-ruled island as its own and regards any expressions of Taiwanese sovereignty as a violation. But Lai’s inauguration is an especially thorny subject for Beijing because the Chinese Communist Party views him as a dangerous instigator of

May 31, 2024

[Wang Son-taek] Five takeaways from the trilateral summit

The trilateral summit between South Korea, Japan, and China held in Seoul, Korea, earlier this week was the first such event in four and a half years since 2019, and it has significantly positive implications for the resumption of the platform for peaceful coexistence and prosperity among the three countries. It was also a successful diplomatic event for the Republic of Korea, raising expectations for peace and stability in Northeast Asia and restoring Korea-China relations. However, it is ne

May 30, 2024

[Bradford DeLong] The threat of Trumpflation and a Fed war

Inflation in the US is lower than it was a year ago, and substantial economic weakness elsewhere is driving other central banks toward interest-rate cuts. With little empirical basis to believe that US monetary policy is not restrictive, I continue to believe that in 18 months, the US Federal Reserve will have wished that it had started cutting rates in January 2024. If I am right, the US is not headed for a soft-landing path; it is already on the runway, albeit with a monetary-policy rudder ste

May 30, 2024

[Kim Seong-kon] Watching the medical school expansion dispute

Recently, the Seoul High Court overruled a petition by the medical community to block the government’s plan to drastically increase the enrolment quota at medical schools. However, the controversy over medical school expansion will continue in South Korea because people think that it will bring not only medical reform but also ultimately the alteration of the Korean health care system. Those who support the government’s policy criticize doctors for selfishly trying to protect their p

May 29, 2024

[Jeffrey Frankel] Europe’s carbon border tax

The European Union’s Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism, officially launched in October 2023, now requires importers to report on the direct and indirect greenhouse-gas emissions embedded in the goods they import. Beginning in January 2026, the EU will start imposing tariffs on imports from countries that do not price carbon at the bloc’s market rate, which could significantly affect carbon-intensive producers among its trading partners. The EU’s new carbon-pricing regime may s

May 29, 2024

[Ana Palacio] Is Europe too big for further enlargement?

Earlier this month, the European Union celebrated the 20th anniversary of its biggest-ever enlargement, which brought ten new members into the bloc. That event remains a potent reminder of the EU’s potential to advance peace and unity across the European continent. But, at a time of deep internal divisions and an increasingly volatile external environment, the giddy idealism of 2004 seems a distant dream, and the prospects of further enlargement appear uncertain. The promise of EU accessio

May 28, 2024

[Grace Kao] Did K-pop debut in US with The Kim Sisters in 1959?

K-pop’s first appearance on the US Billboard Hot 100 Chart was in 2009, when the Wonder Girls’ “Nobody” hit No. 76. Fifty years earlier, in 1959 The Kim Sisters (Sue, Aija, and Mia) from Korea made their American TV premiere on The Ed Sullivan show. So, is 1959 the year that K-Pop made its debut in the US? Probably not, but we should celebrate the importance of The Kim Sisters in representing Korea to the US. They would eventually appear on The Ed Sullivan Show twenty-one

May 28, 2024

[Arvind Subramanian] Sino-American trade war benefits China's rivals

US President Joe Biden and his predecessor Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee in November’s presidential election, are competing to portray themselves as tough on trade and China. Biden has already imposed a 100 percent tariff on Chinese-made electric vehicles, and Trump has vowed to impose a 200 percent tariff on Chinese cars manufactured in Mexico, along with a range of other protectionist measures affecting steel, solar panels, semiconductors and batteries. The European Un

May 27, 2024

[Yoo Choon-sik] Weak household income despite solid labor market

South Korea’s labor market remains strong even as the country’s economy went through one of the toughest years in history during 2023, according to official figures. It is fortunate, given that weak exports and depressed domestic demand have combined to bring gross domestic product growth down to the lowest in modern history last year except for crisis years. On a four-quarter moving average basis, the country’s employment rate for the whole population aged 15 years or older st

May 27, 2024

[Wang Son-taek] Limits and chances from the limitless alliance

Last week, the summit between Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin in Beijing was held amid global attention. The summit became famous because it could serve as the starting point for changing the current international order, namely the unipolar order with the United States as the hegemon, into a multipolar order with China and Russia sharing the same status and power as the United States. During the summit, the two leaders declared the beginning of a new era and sha

May 23, 2024

[Jennifer Huddleston] AI, privacy rules meant for Big Tech

As lawmakers and regulators in the US consider policy born of their Big Tech concerns such as data privacy and artificial intelligence, they should carefully consider how such changes could end up trampling the small and midsize businesses that drive innovation and competition. While policymakers may have Google and Facebook in mind, the actual policies could unintentionally create new regulatory burdens that could deter investment in smaller businesses and prevent new companies from emerging. F

May 23, 2024

[Richard K. Sherwin] King Trump on trial

The drama starring former US President Donald Trump that is now playing out in a New York City courtroom is more than just a criminal trial. It is a contest between competing conceptions of power: a liberal-democratic system of law versus an illiberal conception that locates the source of authority outside the current legal system. According to the conventional view, apart from the fact that for the first time in American history the defendant is a former president (and current presidential cand

May 22, 2024

[Kim Seong-kon] If Edward Said still lived today

Recently, pro-Palestine protests have been erupting across American college campuses. Ever since Columbia University ignited the protest on April 18 by setting up an encampment and occupying Hamilton Hall, many other elite American universities have joined the protests. At the University of Michigan, protestors even waved Palestinian flags. The protestors demand the US government to withdraw its support of Israel in order to stop the genocide in Palestine. On Oct. 7, 2023, the Palestinian milita

May 22, 2024

[Takatoshi Ito] The innocent bystanders of college protests

In 1968, protests against the Vietnam War swept through American college campuses and, in some cases, turned violent. At Columbia University, student protesters were angry about several issues, as James Simon Kunen chronicled in “The Strawberry Statement,” a series that first ran in New York magazine and was later published as a book. The protesting students opposed Columbia’s ties with the Institute for Defense Analyses, a think tank researching war strategy, and the universit

May 21, 2024

[Sandeep Vaheesan] The gig economy vs. America's workers

Uber, Lyft, DoorDash, Instacart, and other gig corporations are once again seeking the law’s blessing in the United States for their unscrupulous employment practices. Ahead of November’s election, these firms have proposed several ballot initiatives in Massachusetts that would empower them to classify drivers and delivery people as independent contractors rather than employees. (The Open Markets Institute, where I work, filed an amicus brief supporting a challenge to the constitutio

May 21, 2024

[Yoo Choon-sik] KDI’s warning against Fed-tied policy

The Korea Development Institute’s revised economic forecasts and comments, released last week, contained sources of confusion for investors regarding the central bank’s monetary policy direction for the rest of the year because it warned against tying the country’s interest rate policy too closely to that in advanced economies. In its biannual event, South Korea’s most influential research institute upgraded this year’s economic growth forecast to 2.6 percent from 2

May 20, 2024

[Robert J. Fouser] Social attitudes toward language proficiency

Defining proficiency in a second language is one of the most controversial topics in second-language education. In the past, near-native proficiency was considered the ideal, but that has changed with the spread of communicative language teaching beginning in the 1980s. CLT focuses on individual learner needs rather than a definition that can be applied across groups of learners. Second-language teachers understand this, but society at large often has complex and conflicting ideas about second-l

May 17, 2024

[Wang Son-taek] Nuclear proliferation and the US national interest

It is shocking to see the claims raised by former US Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense Elbridge Colby in recent interviews with Korean media. In particular, the argument that South Korea should consider its nuclear armament is very disappointing. Although such claims have been made intermittently, this time is uncomfortable and scary because he is known to be one of the best elites in the United States who studied at Harvard College and Yale University, and one of the strong candidates for a

May 16, 2024