[Jean Pisani-Ferry] The eurozone’s unusual policy playbook

The economic situation in Europe is truly disconcerting. Annual inflation in the eurozone has reached a record-high 7.4 percent, yet banks still lend to each other at negative rates. In April, year-on-year inflation in Estonia was a hair’s breadth shy of 20 percent, but only 5.4 percent in Malta. Public debt as a share of GDP is at unprecedented levels, yet German bond yields remain significantly below their long-term average, and spreads, though rising, are still contained. Across the con

June 1, 2022

[Kim Seong-kon] Now I know that I never know

For the past few years, there has been derision and contempt between the young and the old in Korean society. Politicians, who have often instigated such hostility to get votes, are primarily responsible for the generation war. Nevertheless, both generations have problems of their own. As for the young, they tend to think that they know everything. They believe they know love, life, and the world quite well. As a result, young people are impetuous. They never think they are too young to know e

June 1, 2022

[Jason Stanley, Federico Finchelstein] White replacement theory is fascism’s new name

Since Anders Breivik killed 77 people in Norway in 2011, mass murders in the name of white replacement theory (WRT) have become prevalent. Many of these killers, including Breivik; Brenton Tarrant, the Christchurch shooter; and Payton Gendron, the suspect in the massacre in Buffalo, New York, are self-identified as fascists. And yet, it’s easy to miss or even downplay WRT’s fascist origins and its current manifestations. It’s not surprising that this resurgence of WRT comes a

May 31, 2022

[Barbara Shaw] A trip revealed how serious Peru is taking the pandemic. My return to Chicago led to infection

When the plane touched down in Chicago, I sighed with relief. After meticulous planning, we were returning from a two-week trip to Lima, Peru. We hadn’t seen my partner’s sister -- soon to turn 91 years old -- for five years and felt that with thorough precautions, we could keep ourselves and our loved ones safe while in Peru during the pandemic. That sigh of relief soon turned to alarm as we deplaned and saw virtually no one masked or practicing social distancing in the terminal. I

May 31, 2022

[Jeffrey Frankel] Get ready for reverse currency wars

The US dollar is up 12 percent against the euro over the past year and, at 0.93 euros, is approaching parity. If prices of oil and other commodities now seem high in dollar terms, they look even higher in euros. With the greenback surging, and inflation in many countries currently at multi-decade highs, we may be entering so-called “reverse currency wars” -- in which countries compete to strengthen their currencies’ foreign-exchange values. The term “currency wars”

May 30, 2022

[Steven Greenhouse] A new generation of unions

This is the most exciting -- and promising -- moment for the nation’s labor movement in decades thanks to the landmark union victories at Starbucks and Amazon, as well as the spread of union drives to well-known companies like Trader Joe’s and Apple. To find similar excitement about unions, one would have to go back to the 1930s and the victorious Flint sit-down strike against General Motors, which inspired a tremendous wave of strikes and union drives across the US. What has made t

May 27, 2022

[Lee Kyong-hee] The plight of seamstresses, bakers and migrant farm workers

“Sewing Sisters,” a full-length documentary released this year, transports viewers to Seoul Peace Market in the 1970s. It unmasks the fate of garment workers galvanized by a suicide-protest against their harsh working conditions. And, when layered over what we see today, it illuminates how much has not changed, despite the new president’s claim that structural gender inequality no longer exists in this country. Chun Tae-il was one of thousands of workers in a hive of sweatshop

May 26, 2022

[Kim Seong-kon] When suspicion becomes procedure

As the new government has launched, the season of National Assembly hearings for Cabinet members has come again. As expected, controversial issues such as plagiarism, aggressive real estate investment and income sources are at the forefront of the discussion. The most contentious issue is what Koreans call “parent chance,” which refers to advantages that children receive from parents in influential positions in society. In many other countries, it is only natural for parents to hel

May 25, 2022

[Doyle McManus] India has become a US partner in countering China — a limited partner, that is

For more than two decades, American presidents have invested high hopes in a deepening US relationship with India. And at first glance, India looks like a natural US ally, not only an electoral democracy but a rapidly growing economy that fears the expanding power of China. Last year, President Joe Biden and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi met in Washington and declared a “global strategic partnership” -- not quite a formal alliance, but the next best thing. Then Russia invade

May 25, 2022

[Jos Midas Bartman] The fight for press freedom is local

A macabre political thriller recently unfolded in the Philippine province of Palawan, an island known mostly for its rich biodiversity and pristine beaches. On May 9, Joel T. Reyes, the alleged mastermind of the 2011 murder of well-known radio broadcaster Gerry Ortega, ran again for governor. Had Reyes won, the possibilities for Ortega’s family to obtain justice for the killing would have dwindled. Fortunately for them, he lost. Although episodes like the Ortega murder might seem extreme,

May 24, 2022

[Lynn Schmidt] True leaders practice the art of persuasion. Others tweet out trash talk

There is something that has been sorely missing in the United States in the last decade -- soaring rhetoric. We are lacking leaders who, like Abraham Lincoln, appeal to our better angels through their ability to craft rhetoric that resonates in people’s hearts and minds. Rhetoric appeals to people’s emotions and logic to persuade, motivate, or inform. In the fourth century B.C., Greek philosopher Aristotle wrote “The Art of Rhetoric,” in which he defined rhetoric as the

May 24, 2022

[Thomas Spoehr] America’s Army: ‘Equitable’ but not combat-ready

Americans are used to picturing US Army combat soldiers as incredibly tough individuals, able to run faster and do more pushups than most people. In today’s Army, though, that notion is officially passe. At a recent Senate hearing, we learned that Army physical fitness has been sacrificed on the altar of gender equity, a move that former infantryman Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Arkansas, noted, will “get soldiers killed.” Army Secretary Christine Wormuth admitted to Cotton that the serv

May 23, 2022

[Robert J. Fouser] Yoon Suk-yeol’s neoliberalism

President Yoon Suk-yeol began his five-year term last Tuesday with an optimistic inauguration speech. In it, the new president focused on raising the nation’s competitiveness in science and technology and maintaining a strong security posture, but it was his repeated use of the word freedom that caught people’s attention. The president used the word 35 times in the 17-minute speech. The speech immediately set President Yoon apart from today’s intellectual currents moving away

May 20, 2022

[Kim Myong-sik] New S. Korean president up for political peace

Yoon Suk-yeol is the 13th president of the Republic of Korea since its founding in 1948. Yet, he is officially called the 20th president as they count the number of four-year constitutional terms, including two short transitional tenures. Syngman Rhee, the first president of the republic, held the office for 12 years in three consecutive terms until he resigned in 1960 following a student uprising. Yoon Po-sun succeeded him as the titular head of state in a parliamentary system, but he was soo

May 19, 2022

[Kim Seong-kon] When Yoon meets Biden

Within a few days, US President Joseph Biden is coming to Seoul to have a bilateral meeting with South Korea’s new leader, President Yoon Suk-yeol. It will be a great opportunity for the two presidents to strengthen the ties between the two countries. Indeed, White House spokesperson Jen Psaki announced, “This trip will advance the Biden-Harris administration’s rock-solid commitment to a free and open Indo-Pacific and to US treaty alliances with the Republic of Korea and Japan.

May 18, 2022

[LZ Granderson] The nation is still hung over from the Tea Party. Don’t let 2022 midterms be a repeat

There’s a Twitter game that routinely starts whenever a new, frightening revelation about the Trump administration becomes public: Clips of Hillary Clinton predicting that specific horror are resurrected. It’s really quite remarkable. From President Donald Trump’s affinity for Russia’s Vladimir Putin to his refusal to accept the election results. (“Every time Donald thinks things are not going in his direction, he claims whatever it is is rigged against him,”

May 18, 2022

[Mark Z. Barabak] In Ukraine, using an anti-Trump playbook to go after Putin

Over the last two decades, Mike Madrid has battled Democrats, Republicans, Donald Trump and a pesky family of squirrels that assumed residence in the eave of his Midtown Sacramento home. His latest mission is taking on Vladimir Putin and the substructure of lies and misinformation the Russian leader built to support the invasion and attempted takeover of Ukraine. “This is a war of the digital age, of the information age,” Madrid said via encrypted cellphone, before a meeting in the

May 17, 2022

[J. Bradford DeLong] Good inflation news from the bond market

As of May 6, the bond market expected US consumer price inflation to average 2.5 percent between five and 10 years from now. That is the rate of inflation needed to equalize returns on inflation-indexed and nonindexed US Treasury securities. And given that CPI inflation has been running higher than the rate associated with the implicit price deflator for personal consumption expenditures, I count that 2.5 percent five-year, five-year-forward rate as hitting the US Federal Reserve’s 2 perce

May 16, 2022

[Trudy Rubin] Putin’s Victory Day speech shows how Russia can be defeated -- and how Ukraine can win

When Vladimir Putin stood on a Red Square podium Monday, at the annual celebration of the Soviet victory in World War II over Nazi Germany, he looked weak and defensive. Putin didn’t use his speech to formally declare war on Ukraine. He didn’t call for a mass mobilization, or repeat threats to use nuclear weapons. Nor did he talk of Russian “victories” in Ukraine. In a telling indication of how badly things are going for Putin, the Russian military chief, Gen. Valery Ge

May 13, 2022