[Antara Haldar] Why do countries prosper?

Each fall, a telephone call from Stockholm launches one or a few scholars to international fame with the bestowal of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences -- a process that Irving Wallace dramatized in his 1962 potboiler The Prize. This year, the call went to three figures who are already well-known, the economists Daron Acemoglu and Simon Johnson of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and the political scientist James A. Robinson of the University of Chicago. The three were recog

Nov. 7, 2024

[Daniel DePetris] Is there really an ‘axis of evil’?

If we didn’t know any better, we might flip through the newspaper and conclude that the international order the United States helped construct after World War II was coming apart. We might also be led to believe that four countries, China, Russia, Iran and North Korea, are not only contributing to its demise but also forming an alliance to destroy the so-called rules-based order that senior US officials crow about. Since the war in Ukraine erupted in February 2022, US foreign policy expert

Nov. 6, 2024

[Kim Seong-kon] Traveling on the Silk Road for the Golden Fleece

The worst tragedies of human history tend to arise from our too-rigid notions of binary oppositions and our hatred of the other. The antagonisms between the East and the West, Christianity and Islam, or capitalism and communism are good examples. History shows us that the atrocities of wars, massacres and genocides are done in the name of God, the righteousness of pure ideology or delusions of racial supremacy. Recently, I came across a riveting book of poems by the renowned Korean poet Oh Sae-y

Nov. 6, 2024

[Catherine Thorbecke] Indonesia’s iPhone 16 ban

Even the world’s fourth most-populous country, which has more active cellphones than people, seems to be no match for Apple. Indonesia’s ban on the sale of iPhone 16s after the company failed to meet local investment requirements didn’t faze investors. Shares of the world’s most-valuable company were largely unchanged by the news, which makes sense given the smaller footprint it has in the emerging market. And the deck was already unevenly stacked: Indonesia’s entir

Nov. 5, 2024

[John Mark Hansen] Why is the US presidential race even close?

I teach a course at the University of Chicago on presidential elections, and I hear the same kind of question from friends on both the right and the left. The Republicans I grew up with in western Kansas cannot understand why Donald Trump is not far ahead in the polls, whereas the Democrats who surround me in Chicago wonder how it can possibly be that Kamala Harris is not running away with the race. These are the right questions for understanding contemporary US politics. For all its unusual asp

Nov. 5, 2024

[Tyler Cowen] AI's uneven effect on economy

One of the only things growing faster than progress in AI applications is speculation about AI’s effect on the economy. I don’t have all the answers, not by a long shot, but I do think we should expect great unevenness in adaptation, and that itself will alter our world. To see how this is likely to play out, start with a distinction between sectors in which it is relatively easy to go out of business, and sectors in which it is not. Most firms selling computer programming services,

Nov. 4, 2024

[Lee Kyong-hee] True blessing from Han Kang’s Nobel Prize

The news of Han Kang being awarded the Nobel Prize in literature carried me to the winter of 1970, when I started my journalism career at The Korea Times. My tasks included assisting the managing editor, who was creating the Modern Korean Literature Translation Awards, the first of its kind. In considering the more than 50 years that have transpired for Korean literature -- and Korean culture at that -- it may be said that the Nobel Prize is a crowning achievement for one Korean and a watershed

Nov. 4, 2024

[Room Tone] Go the distance

An acquaintance recently asked me, "Hey, why do you love running?" My response was, "I don’t. I love having run." It might sound like a flippant remark, but it’s the honest truth; the act of running itself still feels like a form of legalized torture. For the past 20 years, I've had a love-hate relationship with running. There are moments when I bathe in the euphoric haze of a post-run high, contrasted with times when my frail ankles scream in agony fro

Nov. 1, 2024

[Robert Fouser] Accepting migrants in South Korea

Last week, the Ministry of the Interior and Safety reported that 2,459,542 foreign residents were living in South Korea as of November 2023. In the ministry's case, the term “foreign residents” includes foreign nationals living in the country for three months or more as well as most naturalized citizens. The number of foreign residents, which is close to reaching almost 5 percent of the population, is the highest in South Korean history. The continued increase in the number of f

Nov. 1, 2024

[Wang Son-taek] Diplomatic composure in tumultuous times

The world is undergoing significant shifts, and the pace of these changes can often provoke anxiety and uncertainty. Across continents, events are unfolding with potentially profound impacts on global stability. Former US President Donald Trump is positioning himself for another term that could potentially reshape the liberal order. North Korea is sending troops to Russia to fight Ukraine, creating new geopolitical complexities. In Japan, a new prime minister faces political instability, increas

Oct. 31, 2024

[Kim Seong-kon] Living in the animal kingdom

These days, intellectuals lament that humans behave as if they were living in the animal kingdom. It means that we have lost our humanity and act like animals. An animal’s primary concern is to eat and survive. In addition to searching or hunting for food, some animals flock together and others fight for dominance over territorial disputes. Of course, animals also have some admirable traits, such as caring and sharing, but these behaviors tend to be limited to family or individuals within

Oct. 30, 2024

[Grace Kao] Taking gratitude into our own hands

I received a handwritten thank-you card from my childhood friend’s daughter this week. I sent a birthday check a little while ago. I very much appreciated it, and it shows that my friend has taught her daughter well, and that her daughter has good manners. I constantly remind my students to write thank-you notes (even a simple email message). I dare not ask them to handwrite thank-you cards. However, every so often, a handwritten thank-you card will appear. It is an exceedingly rare event.

Oct. 29, 2024

[Yoo Choon-sik] Monetary policy confined by apartment prices

South Korea’s economy posted surprisingly weak growth in the third quarter, as exports declined due to cooling demand from major markets like China, while construction investment plummeted amid a persistent slump in the domestic real estate market, according to official estimates from the central bank. Disappointing growth and slowing inflation typically point to a need for loosening in monetary policy to support the economy. However, most analysts predict the Bank of Korea will not lower

Oct. 28, 2024

[Allison Schrager] Populism bad for economic growth

The degrowth movement, which had a moment a few years ago, is over -- and not a moment too soon. As nations in Europe and North America face mounting debt and aging populations, politicians are again talking about how to increase economic growth. There’s only one problem: No one is advocating policies that will actually work. Doing that would require embracing change, which is the last thing any politician beholden to populism wants to do. The best recent illustration is former President D

Oct. 28, 2024

[Lee Byung-jong] President Park’s legacy

In this season of Nobel Prize awarding, South Koreans were happily surprised twice. The biggest news was of course the winning of the Nobel Prize in literature by the novelist Han Kang. Equally important, but perhaps less noticed news was the fact that the three winners of the Nobel Prize in economics revealed their work was largely inspired by the success of the Korean economy. In studying why some countries succeed economically, while others fail, they used Korea as a prime example of a succ

Oct. 25, 2024

[Jeffrey Frankel] What causes prosperity?

Why have some countries grown rich and others not? The three winners of this year’s Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences -- Daron Acemoglu, Simon Johnson and James A. Robinson -- offer a simple answer: institutions. Countries with “inclusive” institutions -- which underpin an open society, accountable government, economic freedom and the rule of law -- do better than those with “extractive” institutions that reward those in power. The World Bank’s institutional qu

Oct. 24, 2024

[Wang Son-taek] Basic guidelines of intelligence agency

Over the past few days, the Korean Peninsula has been exposed to a flood of sensitive security issues. Above all, the news that North Korea was sending 12,000 special forces troops to Russia drew attention not only from South Korea but also from the international community. This explosive story changed the mood of major domestic politics. In particular, the quantity of negative stories about President Yoon Suk Yeol and his wife has decreased to a certain extent. There was also an incomprehensibl

Oct. 24, 2024

[Kim Seong-kon] Becoming both a progressive and a conservative

If someone says that they are both a progressive and a conservative, or leftwing and rightwing, we may think that they are a sly opportunist, a hopelessly contradictory person, or a case of dissociative identity disorder. Not anymore. Today, a perfectly normal person can become such a broadminded person who can cross the border between the two and embrace them, if they have courage and capacity. Moreover, they are an ideal person we need in order to build a non-polarized, better society. The ren

Oct. 23, 2024

[Neeraj Rajasekar] Wrong conversation about voter fraud

For the past decade, the United States has been mired in a repetitive, pointless conversation about “voter fraud,” helped in no small part by Donald Trump’s efforts to undermine voters’ faith in the electoral process. During the presidential debate with Kamala Harris in early September, Trump insisted that he was the true winner of the 2020 election, and he has repeatedly hinted that he will not accept the election results this November if they are not in his favor. Since

Oct. 23, 2024

[Patrick Bolton, Haizhou Huang] Is China facing a deflationary trap?

About two years ago, in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, China’s economy hit a roadblock. As all sectors underwent deleveraging, economic growth slowed, household savings rates increased and businesses scaled back their investments and accumulated savings. Many now wonder whether consumers and companies are stuck in a self-reinforcing cycle of declining spending and falling prices, which would have the pernicious effect of increasing the real value of debt. For a long time, the gove

Oct. 22, 2024