Fostering development of small firms in China

The World Bank report, “China 2030: Building a Modern, Hamonious and Creative High-Income Society,” which was released this week, stated that liberalizing interest rates according to market principles is a priority for China’s financial reforms over the next two decades, highlighting the dilemma facing the government. China’s banking system remains a highly regulated sector; policymakers set the interest rates, not the market and most of the large state-owned banks tend to offer credit facilitie

March 8, 2012

Netanyahu gives Obama a Purim message to heed

Earlier this week, the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, visited President Barack Obama in the White House. The two met together with their national-security advisers for 90 minutes, then had a 30-minute chat alone, then moved to a lunch together with various high officials of their governments. Many words were exchanged during these meetings, but it turns out they all might have been superfluous. Netanyahu delivered his overriding message quite efficiently, and almost wordlessly, in t

March 8, 2012

Companies need flexible cybersecurity laws

You probably feel it intuitively. The grids underlying our digital lives ― our bank accounts, mobile phones, e-mail, medical records ― are more vulnerable than ever. Companies such as Lockheed Martin Corp., Citigroup Inc. and Sony Corp. have recently reported serious breaches of their networks. NASA said last week that hackers had launched 13 major attacks against it last year, including one in which they gained access to networks at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which manages active space miss

March 7, 2012

Japanese accounting gets rare ray of sunlight

The auditing profession’s top U.S. overseer usually does a flawless job of safeguarding the most embarrassing secrets of accounting firms and their corporate clients. Fortunately, every now and then, the watchdog slips up. Take the case of Kyoto Audit Corp., a Japanese affiliate of the Big Four auditor PricewaterhouseCoopers. On Feb. 14, the U.S. Public Company Accounting Oversight Board released its first-ever inspection report on the Kyoto-based firm. The report said the board’s staff reviewed

March 7, 2012

Kyung Hee founder Choue’s peace theory

Dr. Choue Young Seek, founder of Kyung Hee University and the Graduate Institute of Peace Studies, passed away on Feb. 18 this year. He devoted most of his life to promoting his peace theory through education, various peace movements and writings. He developed the initial ideas of his peace theory in his book titled “Creation of a Cultural World,” which he wrote during the Korean War. There are as many theories of war as there are major wars in history. Some are based on the aggressive human nat

March 7, 2012

Japan nuclear mobsters don’t share disaster pain

A year after an earthquake in Japan touched off the worst nuclear crisis since Chernobyl, here’s the question on my mind: Who’s going to jail? The news media are asking the obvious and safe questions ahead of March 11: How well did the government respond? Whither the devastated northeast? What’s the economic effect? When might the 52 of 54 nuclear reactors mothballed since then reopen? This barrage of “anniversary” articles misses the point. Anniversaries commemorate events in the past, ones for

March 7, 2012

Debt scarier than tsunami, yet no quakes

Nowhere is the epic stoicism of the Japanese more evident than in their approach to a mountain of public debt that leaves government finances in a perilous state. Eclipsing the debt load of Greece, not to mention the advanced economies, Japan has the granddad of government debt at $11 trillion, which amounts to a debt-to-gross domestic product ratio that exceeds 200 percent. A policy board member of Japan‘s central bank was right to warn last month that his country is not immune to a sovereign d

March 7, 2012

Japanese accounting gets rare ray of sunlight

The auditing profession’s top U.S. overseer usually does a flawless job of safeguarding the most embarrassing secrets of accounting firms and their corporate clients. Fortunately, every now and then, the watchdog slips up. Take the case of Kyoto Audit Corp., a Japanese affiliate of the Big Four auditor PricewaterhouseCoopers. On Feb. 14, the U.S. Public Company Accounting Oversight Board released its first-ever inspection report on the Kyoto-based firm. The report said the board’s staff reviewed

March 7, 2012

Elpida‘s failure means Japan’s loss to S. Korea in semiconductor market

It was a setback for the “flagbearer of Japan‘s semiconductor industry,” and it symbolizes the decline in Japan’s industrial competitiveness.Elpida Memory Inc., the only domestic manufacturer -- and the No. 3 maker in the world -- of dynamic random-access memory (DRAM) used for personal computers and other products, has given up its self-rehabilitation efforts and filed for protection under the Corporate Rehabilitation Law. This means the company has gone bankrupt.Competition is fierce in the DR

March 7, 2012

U.S. Companies Need Flexible Cybersecurity Laws to Combat Hackers

You probably feel it intuitively. The grids underlying our digital lives -- our bank accounts, mobile phones, e-mail, medical records -- are more vulnerable than ever. Companies such as Lockheed Martin Corp., Citigroup Inc. and Sony Corp. have recently reported serious breaches of their networks. NASA said last week that hackers had launched 13 major attacks against it last year, including one in which they gained access to networks at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which manages active space mi

March 7, 2012

Japan should reactivate nuclear reactors

The bitter winter chill is gradually easing. It looks like the nation has been able to meet peak demand for electricity over the winter and avoid a greatly feared electricity crisis.However, industry and individual households must not let their guard down. Power suppliers across the country are walking on a tightrope, and the electricity shortage has become chronic.Almost one year has passed since the Great East Japan Earthquake. Most nuclear reactors across Japan have been left idle even after

March 6, 2012

China’s slow march to the free market economy

The World Bank has warned China that its economic growth model, which depends heavily on exports and state-owned enterprises (SOEs), is unsustainable. Though criticized for some past judgments, this advice from the World Bank is sound. It comes in a report, co-authored with the Development Research Center of China’s State Council, which recommended that Beijing reduce the dominant role of SOEs in order to promote the free market.Having amazed the world with the dramatic results of the economic r

March 6, 2012

Japan’s loss to S. Korea in semiconductor market

It was a setback for the “flagbearer of Japan’s semiconductor industry,” and it symbolizes the decline in Japan’s industrial competitiveness.Elpida Memory Inc., the only domestic manufacturer ― and the No. 3 maker in the world ― of dynamic random-access memory (DRAM) used for personal computers and other products, has given up its self-rehabilitation efforts and filed for protection under the Corporate Rehabilitation Law. This means the company has gone bankrupt.Competition is fierce in the DRAM

March 6, 2012

Unleashed spending floods Americans in negativity

This may come to be known as the Samuel Alito election. The U.S. presidential contest is predominately about Barack Obama’s stewardship of the economy and the political-cultural divide in the Republican Party. It’s also about the huge sums of money sloshing around, after Justice Alito replaced Sandra Day O’Connor on the Supreme Court and provided the swing vote in the 2010 Citizens United case. Supporters claimed that allowing unlimited contributions from individuals, corporations and unions wou

March 6, 2012

Unleashed Spending Floods Americans in Negativity

This may come to be known as the Samuel Alito election. The U.S. presidential contest is predominately about Barack Obama’s stewardship of the economy and the political-cultural divide in the Republican Party. It’s also about the huge sums of money sloshing around, after Justice Alito replaced Sandra Day O’Connor on the Supreme Court and provided the swing vote in the 2010 Citizens United case. Supporters claimed that allowing unlimited contributions from individuals, corporations and unions wou

March 6, 2012