[David Fickling] China too rich to splurge on infrastructure

How much more stimulus can the Chinese economy take? It’s a question of crucial importance after Beijing unveiled its 2020 economic policy plans Friday. China’s 4 trillion yuan ($562 billion) stimulus package in the wake of the global financial crisis paved the way for its transformation over the past decade. In the 2000s, the country was a low-cost assembly room for the world’s supply chains. Now it’s an increasingly confident middle-income power, with a burgeoning c

May 25, 2020

[Serendipity] Music can heal. We need it more than ever

Months into the COVID-19 pandemic, life seems to have settled into a humdrum rhythm. Days pass like the swing of a pendulum -- back and forth, back and forth, from home to work, work to home. Yet, such regularity as I have not experienced in years does little to offer peace of mind or comfort. Beneath the surface calm is the constant whirring of the brain. Actions have consequences and in these perilous times, we are required to constantly make decisions that could potentially impact not only

May 22, 2020

[Robert J. Fouser] Dealing with labor market duality

South Korea continues its steady march back to normal life as the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic recedes. The nation continues to earn international praise for its effective response to the pandemic. As most nations begin to emerge from emergency measures, attention has turned to rebuilding economies reeling from lockdowns. Though Korea managed to escape lockdowns, deteriorating economic conditions are creating new challenges. In the first quarter of 2020, gross domestic product declined by a

May 22, 2020

[Kim Myong-sik] S. Korean military costs a lot, loses trust

South Korea, 12th in the world in terms of GDP ranking, has a defense budget of 50.15 trillion won for 2020, equal to or $42 billion. The nation’s defense spending has grown steadily these years to a level comparable to major states in Europe -- 84 percent of Russia’s, 84 percent of Germany’s and 72 percent of France’s in 2018. If the average increase rate of 6 percent over the past five years continues, South Korea will surpass Japan in defense expenditure by 2026. Supp

May 21, 2020

[Noah Smith] Debt isn’t as scary as government bungling

The coronavirus pandemic and the resulting economic depression are going to require huge amounts of government spending. The US government is devoting resources to halting the outbreak. It’s sustaining businesses during shutdowns so that they don’t have to be rebuilt from scratch. It’s paying the bills for workers who’ve lost their jobs. It’s bailing out state and local governments whose tax revenues are disappearing and can’t finance budget deficits. And it&r

May 21, 2020

[Daniel Moss] Central banks let the genie out of the bottle

The world’s biggest economies have rolled out a plethora of monetary support measures over the past two months. If there’s one central bank that knows how hard bottling them back up will be, it’s Japan, where special operations have become a permanent fixture. Tokyo’s example suggests that policymakers will have an expansive role for years to come, particularly given the depth of the slump from the coronavirus outbreak. Japan headed into its lockdown hobbled by poor choi

May 20, 2020

[Kim Seong-kon] Coronavirus resembles a corrosive ideology

The global pandemic called COVID-19 is now ruthlessly invading the world, devastating all the infected nations and still causing untold numbers of deaths. Humans cannot but shudder at this never-before-seen deadly virus that attacks and kills them callously. Meanwhile, the lethal coronavirus has radically changed our society in many ways. For example, we are now living in an inhumane society where people are suspicious of one another and shun the warmth of human touch because we cannot be sure

May 20, 2020

[Doyle McManus] Welcome back, Barack. What took you so long?

It’s about time. After more than three years of relative self-restraint while President Donald Trump lambasted his character and eviscerated his policies, former President Barack Obama has waded back into politics just in time for the presidential campaign. In a videoconference with some 3,000 former aides last week, Obama slammed Trump’s response to the coronavirus crisis as an unbridled catastrophe, criticism he knew would leak. Obama acknowledged that the pandemic “would

May 19, 2020

[Lionel Laurent] The perfect coronavirus refuge

The world’s tourism hot spots are gradually reopening after the great lockdown, but they don’t look very alluring. Going to the beach will require spacing out parasols and forgetting about the drinks service, while a city break in Europe might mean keeping a mask on while shopping. Not to mention the quarantines being imposed to limit imported infections, hardly a great way to start a vacation. Public health has become a huge factor in tourism: “COVID-free” is the new fiv

May 19, 2020

[Byoung-chul Min] How Korea is fighting against COVID-19

The COVID-19 pandemic had initially shaken South Korea. In the beginning, as we struggled to contain the virus, the number of infections rose quickly, just as other countries later experienced. However, we were able to quickly cope with this seemingly uncontrollable situation. The two main elements of Korea’s success in overcoming this pandemic are a human-centered philosophy (ideology) and a state-of-the-art disease control system. A human-centered philosophy, where human life and human

May 18, 2020

[Trudy Rubin] Swedish model holds coronavirus lessons for America

As a partisan debate rages over whether and how to reopen the country, America is drifting, with no coherent strategy from the White House. States are opening up helter-skelter. President Donald Trump contradicts his experts and rages at perceived enemies, leaving ordinary citizens confused and angry. In a sane world, the Trump team would be assessing models adopted by nations that have handled COVID-19 better than we have. It would be devising an American model to transition to a safe new norm

May 18, 2020

[Lionel Laurent] COVID-19 vaccine fight getting ugly

An effective COVID-19 vaccine, if it ever arrives, should be treated as a public good for the whole of society. Every continent has been struck by the virus, bar Antarctica. But the combination of national self-interest and pressure for the pharmaceutical industry to turn a profit is already triggering a geopolitical bust up over who actually gets access to the vaccine first. It’s a reminder that the spoils of drug research aren’t equally divided. The system is ripe for a rethink.

May 18, 2020

[Digital Simplicity] Why font matters in an era of multiple digital screens

I had nearly perfect vision. I had no problem reading fine print. I was able to read paperbacks whose font size was deemed too small for average readers. I often read books on the bus or in rooms with poor lighting, which would surely make eye doctors frown. But I was fairly confident about my excellent vision, and I enjoyed the privilege. I bet you have already noticed that in the previous paragraph I used a past tense about my eyesight. As with many other middle-aged people, my eyesight bega

May 17, 2020

[Therese Raphael] Boris Johnson’s reopening strategy confuses Britain

Boris Johnson’s much-anticipated address to the nation Sunday night left many feeling unsatisfied, and others infuriated. For a political team that has often used pithy slogans to devastating effect, the new one unveiled to guide Britain out of the lockdown -- “Stay Alert” -- feels like an epic fail. How does one stay alert and to what, people wondered. Part of the problem was presentational. Johnson’s 13-minute speech was short on details, leaving everyone to wait unti

May 14, 2020

[Andreas Kluth] EU entering constitutional crisis

You might have been under the impression that the European Union has quite enough problems to manage. For one thing, there’s a pandemic going on, causing a recession and a debt crisis that might blow up the currency union. For another, two member states, Poland and Hungary, are going rogue, undermining democracy and the rule of law and increasingly seeking conflict with Brussels. I’m not the only one who’s been wondering whether the EU has a future at all. And now some red-rob

May 14, 2020

[Kim Seong-kon] Be grateful and modest in these challenging times

Amid the ever-widening spread of the novel coronavirus, we realize things that we normally would not. For example, we realize we should be grateful to doctors, nurses and health care workers who are willing to take the risk of contagion in order to save their patients from a dangerous virus. Our gratitude should also go to police officers and ambulance staff, who have to respond to emergencies and whose daily assignments expose them to the contagious virus as well. We should be especially grat

May 13, 2020

[David Ignatius] Russia’s scavenger diplomacy

While most of the world has been on lockdown from the novel coronavirus, the wars and political machinations of the Middle East have continued. Amid this turmoil, Russia appears to be making steady progress as a regional power. The pandemic and collapse of oil prices have pounded the region’s already fragile countries. The Gulf oil kingdoms are slashing budgets; Iran is hunkered down and trying to keep its leadership alive and its strategic weapons programs intact. America, meanwhile, is

May 13, 2020

[Noah Smith] US states must maintain lockdowns

Many states in the US are racing to reopen their economies before measures such as testing, contact tracing and full-time mask-wearing are in place. But one of biggest economic effects of a hasty end of lockdowns won’t be to save businesses; it will be to kick people off of desperately needed government assistance. While almost all other developed nations are seeing their new COVID-19 cases decline as a result of lockdowns and other public-health measures, the US has only managed to reach

May 12, 2020