The Korea Herald

The Group of 20 stumbles as crisis worsens

The Group of 20 was launched from the embers of the 2008 global economic meltdown, a recognition that the world needed a new mechanism to manage economic affairs. The Group of Eight, which had played the role since the 1980s, was considered outdated and incapable of dealing with emerging economic concerns, primarily because its membership did not reflect economic strength and influence.Yet since its initial meeting at which leaders agreed to staunch the hemorrhaging that threatened to create a n

Nov. 11, 2011

When politics and law collide

The decision by the Law and Human Rights Ministry last week to issue a moratorium on sentence remissions for graft convicts while observing frequent cases of controversial sentence reductions for convicted corruptors deserves the full support of us all, for better or worse.Such a policy will expectedly ensure justice is served and eventually improve the image of the country’s judicial system, which has been repeatedly tarnished by cases of irregularities and violations of laws and regulations.De

Nov. 11, 2011

[Kavi Chongkittavorn] Can ASEAN centrality be kept at East Asia Summit?

When the Association of Southeast Asian Nations decided to invite the United States and Russia to join the premium leader-led East Asia Summit in July 2010, it had no idea that their presence would impact on the overall pattern of engagement with other dialog partners.As it turns out, the desire to construct an expansive ASEAN-led regional architecture is being challenged fervently by other non-ASEAN EAS members. They have already collectively demanded to be treated as equal, as the sixth EAS sc

Nov. 11, 2011

[Kavi Chongkittavorn] Can ASEAN centrality be kept at East Asia Summit?

A horrible sea change for game fishermen

The sea has been exceedingly good to my family. Back in my grandfather’s day, the fish were bigger and the tales of catching them biggest of all. One of the largest problems for an angler after hooking an elusive marlin or sailfish was reeling it in before sharks robbed you of your prize ― a frenzied race against these tireless hunters of the deep.These experiences, facing off against nature in the wide-open ocean, were a key inspiration for “Papa’s” Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, “The Old Man an

Nov. 10, 2011

[Robert Reich] Wall Street is back to its old tricks

This week, President Obama travels to Wall Street, where he’ll demand ― in light of the Street’s continuing antics since the bailout, as well as its role in watering down the Volcker rule ― that the Glass-Steagall Act be resurrected and big banks be broken up.I’m kidding. But it would be a smart move.Americans of whatever stripe ― from Tea Partiers on the right to Occupiers on the left ― continue to hold Wall Street at least partly responsible for the nation’s continuing misery. With good reason

Nov. 10, 2011

[Robert Reich] Wall Street is back to its old tricks

‘Old enough to be friends’

In these luminous days of high skies and fat horses, as Koreans describe their crisp autumn season, I feel I have come home ― to a place I hardly recognize.Forty-one years ago I left Korea, after working here for two years as a Peace Corps volunteer, teaching English at a women’s college. Recently, as I stood in Gwanghwamun Plaza, gawking at the skyscrapers soaring above the renovated heart of this ancient Joseon capital, the techno-bling of the new century looked more like Abu Dhabi than the Se

Nov. 10, 2011

America now more keen on its civil service than Russia

Russian’s non-Putin President Dmitry Medvedev (a.k.a. President Placeholder) met with a group of small businessmen in Moscow over the summer to discuss their challenges. One can only imagine where to start. So Medvedev, according to state news agency RIA Novosti, offered some direction: “The youth believe that (the civil service) is an example of how to be successful quickly without the need to apply any effort.” He suggested that a bureaucratic career could lead to the kind of corrupt mentality

Nov. 10, 2011

The Turkish model is unlikely to work in Egypt

CAIRO ― In mid-September, on a high-profile visit here, Turkey Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan received a hero’s welcome at the airport from a Muslim Brotherhood delegation.No wonder. Erdogan is a pious Muslim whose AKP political party has Islamic roots; his party has scored great success in a country with secular traditions and a secular constitution. The Turkish experience is often cited as a model for Egypt, where Islamist parties are expected to win a big plurality in coming elections.Ye

Nov. 10, 2011

[Joel Brinkley] Pity the children of Afghanistan

Hardly anyone noticed, but the Afghan government cut the budget for the state’s Independent Human Rights Commission by half this year, evidencing “the government’s lack of interest and political will in the promotion of human rights,” the commission said.Nowhere on earth is the work of a human-rights commission more important than in Afghanistan. Why is that? If you want to judge a country, the best measure in my view is how it treats its children.By that standard, the United States is hardly bl

Nov. 10, 2011

[Joel Brinkley] Pity the children of Afghanistan

Elections a Reagan-era redux with a twist

The results of presidential elections in Nicaragua and Guatemala on Sunday ― won, respectively, by a leftist revolutionary and a right-wing military man ― could almost lead one to think we’re back in the Reagan era. Well, yes and no. Some of the characters are the same, but the roles are reversed. Former liberators are turning into tyrants; once-threatening militaries have become potential rescuers. In Nicaragua, Daniel Ortega, the Sandinista National Liberation Front leader who helped topple th

Nov. 9, 2011

[David Ignatius] Egypt’s prolonged struggle ahead

CAIRO ― How has life changed in Egypt since the revolution, and what’s going to happen in the parliamentary elections that begin late this month? I recently asked those questions in a poor neighborhood of Cairo called Ain el-Sira, and the responses amounted to a warning: The new Egypt must give these people a sense of security and progress soon, or it’s in trouble. “It’s worse since the revolution ― there is no safety, no security, no police,” says Nashwa Mustafa, a simple woman garbed in black

Nov. 9, 2011

[David Ignatius] Egypt’s prolonged struggle ahead

Why Obama might save Israel from nuclear Iran

The International Atomic Energy Agency is set to release a report today offering further proof that the Iranian regime is bent on acquiring nuclear weapons. No intelligence is entirely dispositive, but the evidence on hand about Iran’s nuclear activities, even before the release of the latest report, is fairly persuasive, and the IAEA isn’t known to be a den of neoconservative war-plotting. It isn’t interested in giving Israel a pretext for a preemptive attack on Iran unless it has to. The quest

Nov. 9, 2011

Middle class pays for financial market mistakes

At one level, all financial crises are the same. A relatively small group of people, typically bankers, find the opportunity to take very big risks. For a while, financiers show high profits, justifying rising stock prices for their companies and large bonuses for their top executives. But these profits are never properly adjusted for what will actually materialize over five to 10 years, meaning that they understate risk and overstate true earnings. Greater short-term returns are often available

Nov. 9, 2011

[Park Sang-seek] Different crises in the West and in the Middle East

The U.S. and Western European countries are still mired in the economic crisis and Arab countries have not recovered from the political crisis. These two different crises have engulfed the whole world and left it hanging it in the balance. The economic crisis has been caused by hyper-economic development, and the political crisis by political mal-development. In the West, financial capital has incapacitated the free market and corrupted industrial capital and undermined the entire capitalist sys

Nov. 9, 2011

[Park Sang-seek] Different crises in the West and in the Middle East

Unintended consequences of assassinations

There is no denying that 2011 has been a banner year for taxpayer-funded assassinations ― Osama bin Laden, Anwar Awlaki, five senior Pakistani Taliban commanders in October and many more. Given the crucial U.S. backup role in Libya, and the ringing exhortation for the Libyan leader’s death issued by Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton just before the event itself, we can probably take a lot of credit for Moammar Gadhafi’s messy end too.Once upon a time, U.S. officials used to claim that we

Nov. 8, 2011

[Daniel Fiedler] Absurdity of law student quotas

Recently law professors in South Korea were asked their opinion on the latest version of the Korean bar exam, the test the new law school graduates must pass to become lawyers. Yet nowhere in the questionnaire was there opportunity to address the biggest issue, that of the quota system. Despite repeated attempts to open up the legal market in South Korea, the current members of the Korean bar have managed to retain a quota of around 1,500 new lawyers per year for the foreseeable future. This abs

Nov. 8, 2011

[Daniel Fiedler] Absurdity of law student quotas

[Meghan Daum] Living in denial ― Madoff family style

I didn’t see any Ruth Madoff masks on Halloween night, but it wouldn’t have surprised me if I had. The wife of disgraced Wall Street Ponzi schemer Bernard Madoff was Pariah No. 1 last week, followed closely by her son, Andrew. The two, along with Andrew’s fiance, appeared on “60 Minutes” on Sunday night (Oct. 30) to promote their “authorized family biography,” “Truth and Consequences.”“I have been eager, I would say almost desperate, to speak out publicly and tell people that I’m absolutely not

Nov. 8, 2011

[Meghan Daum] Living in denial ― Madoff family style

MF signs death warrant for short-term funding

People ask me all the time: How could Wall Street powerhouses such as Bear Stearns Cos., Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. and Merrill Lynch & Co. disappear virtually overnight? How could MF Global Holdings Ltd. be here one day and gone the next? Why was Jefferies Group Inc., the midsized investment bank, whipsawed last week by rumors about its very survival because of questions about its exposure to European debt? What the demise of Bear, Lehman, Merrill, MF Global ― and the near collapses of Jeffe

Nov. 8, 2011

[Kim Seong-kon] Danger of binary value judgments

Koreans often seem to be confused by the question, “Do good people build a good society, or does a good society foster good people?” The former claim may be the basis for a liberal, democratic society and the latter for a socialist country. Living in a group-oriented society, many Koreans ultimately seem to be inclined to the latter, believing in the power of a good society rather than in the strength of the individual. As someone who studies and teaches literature, however, I believe in the pow

Nov. 8, 2011

[Kim Seong-kon] Danger of binary value judgments

[Shlomo Ben Ami] Ransoming the chance for peace

MADRID ― The exchange of prisoners between enemies is often a prelude to political reconciliation. Unfortunately, the recent exchange between Israel and Hamas, in which the Islamist organization gained the lion’s share of more than 1,000 prisoners in exchange for the Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, does not augur well for the chances of an Israeli-Palestinian peace.Contrary to appearances, the deal is not a reflection of both sides’ interest in beginning a political rapprochement that might lead t

Nov. 7, 2011

[Shlomo Ben Ami] Ransoming the chance for peace