The Korea Herald

[Meghan Daum] New English words to live by

Every year around this time, the Concise Oxford English Dictionary releases a list of words that will be added to its next edition. It’s lucky that the announcement comes toward the end of August, when most humans want to go on vacation and most columnists, therefore, need to write an “evergreen.”Ev

Sept. 5, 2011

[Meghan Daum] New English words to live by

[Eric X. Li] Chinese politics: Left or right, red and redder

SHANGHAI ― China watchers are all talking about one of the most interesting recent developments in the country’s political and social scene: “singing red” ― the revival of revolutionary songs epitomizing the leftism of the Maoist era. It began in Chongqing, a major city of 20 million in the nation’s

Sept. 5, 2011

[Eric X. Li] Chinese politics: Left or right, red and redder

N.Y.’s new attorney general stands up to big banks

So here’s Eric Schneiderman, of whom you’ve probably never heard, who last year was elected attorney general of the state of New York, a job that arguably makes him the third most-influential state officeholder in the nation, behind only the governors of New York and California.This is because the a

Sept. 4, 2011

[Joel Brinkley] War costs greater than thought

As the congressional debt-reduction “super committee” begins work next week, it had better take into account trillions of dollars in anticipated war costs that no one in Washington seems willing to acknowledge.For decades now (and probably much longer) government estimates of war costs strove not to

Sept. 4, 2011

[Joel Brinkley] War costs greater than thought

[S. P. Seth] China’s hegemony to face broad resistance

U.S. Vice-President Joe Biden’s recent China visit appears to have been quite uneventful, apart from the reported fight between a visiting American goodwill basketball team (unrelated to Biden’s visit) and their Chinese counterparts. Is this a portent of things to come?Considering China’s nervousnes

Sept. 4, 2011

[Ramesh Ponnuru] U.S. should follow world down on company taxes

Nations don’t compete with one another the way companies do. Pepsi’s gain is almost always Coca-Cola’s loss, but the same doesn’t always, or even often, hold true for national economies. Governments do compete in some respects: They want to attract capital investment to their countries, for example,

Sept. 4, 2011

[Park Soo-gil] In facing the North, politics should stop at the DMZ

A leading South Korean newspaper recently published a three-part series of interviews with Kim Hyun-hee, one of the two North Korean agents who bombed KAL 858 in November 1987, killing all 115 persons on board.The articles stirred up a complex strand of painful memories for me, as it probably did fo

Sept. 4, 2011

[Park Soo-gil] In facing the North, politics should stop at the DMZ

[William Pesek] Rock ‘n’ roll line rings true in deflation nation

Japan needs an Arab Spring. If you’d told me 10 years ago, when I moved to Tokyo, that today I’d be writing about an eighth leader, I never would’ve believed it. Yet here we are, analyzing and philosophizing about whether Yoshihiko Noda will last longer than the last five. In April 2001, Junichiro K

Sept. 2, 2011

[Malcolm Fraser] America’s self-inflicted decline

MELBOURNE ― If the broad post-World War II prosperity that has endured for six decades comes to an end, both the United States and Europe will be responsible. With rare exceptions, politics has become a discredited profession throughout the West. Tomorrow is always treated as more important than nex

Sept. 2, 2011

[Malcolm Fraser] America’s self-inflicted decline

DPJ must revive itself through generation change

The Democratic Party of Japan-led administration has for the first time a leader with a steadfast political style and well-grounded policies.In the DPJ’s presidential election Monday, Finance Minister Yoshihiko Noda defeated Economy, Trade and Industry Minister Banri Kaieda in a runoff. It was a dra

Sept. 2, 2011

Jobs’ influence overshadows presidents, terrorists, turmoil

As the tenth anniversary of 9/11 draws near, it may be remarkable to argue that the person who changed the way of life the most in the past decade is neither late al-Qaida chief Osama bin Laden, U.S. President George Bush, who started the so-called “War on Terror” or his successor, Barack Obama, the

Sept. 2, 2011

[Andrew Sheng] Putting finance to work for the real economy

Finance is a service industry, but in the past three decades it seems to have gone its own way. The functions of the finance sector are to protect property rights for the real sector, improve resource allocation, reduce transaction costs, help manage risks and help discipline borrowers. Financi

Sept. 2, 2011

[Andrew Sheng] Putting finance to work for the real economy

[Michael Smerconish] Some political gaffes really say something

During his recent visit to China, U.S. Vice President Biden mistakenly said we own 85 percent of U.S. Treasury securities, while the number is actually 54 percent. But who am I to criticize?Sitting in front of a live microphone can be dangerous. I know because I do it for 20 hours each week for my n

Sept. 1, 2011

[Robert Reich] Workers need marches, not parades

Labor Day is traditionally a time for picnics and parades. But this year is no picnic for American workers, and a protest march would be more appropriate than a parade.Not only are 25 million unemployed or underemployed, but American companies continue to cut wages and benefits. The median wage is s

Sept. 1, 2011

[Robert Reich] Workers need marches, not parades

Navigating the road map to a post-Gadhafi Libya

WASHINGTON ― As the Libyan rebels continue to mop up resistance inside Tripoli and extend the nominal authority of the Transitional National Council to the rest of Libya, it is important to remember that the establishment of a new Libya will take time and face challenges even greater than those requ

Sept. 1, 2011

Mexican president correctly hits cartels’ terrorist threat

Mexican President Felipe Calderon issued a long overdue warning to drug cartel leaders last week that their murderous rampage has crossed a threshold and deserves to be labeled what it really is: terrorism. His acknowledgement will help change the mindset about the true nature of this menace and cou

Sept. 1, 2011

[Frida Ghitis] Someone wants a war in the Middle East

Something extremely important and exceedingly dangerous is unfolding in a most explosive part of the globe, but it is receiving only minimal attention by the media and by world leaders. An outbreak of violence in Southern Israel, Gaza, and along the Egyptian border, triggered by a recent attack agai

Sept. 1, 2011

[Jeffrey D. Sachs] The new economics of happiness

NEW YORK ― We live in a time of high anxiety. Despite the world’s unprecedented total wealth, there is vast insecurity, unrest, and dissatisfaction. In the United States, a large majority of Americans believe that the country is “on the wrong track.” Pessimism has soared. The same is true in many ot

Sept. 1, 2011

[Jeffrey D. Sachs] The new economics of happiness

[J. Bradford DeLong] Ben Bernanke’s dream world

BERKELEY ― U.S. Federal Reserve Board Chairman Ben Bernanke is not regarded as an oracle in the way that his predecessor, Alan Greenspan, was before the financial crisis. But financial markets were glued to the speech he gave in Jackson Hole, Wyoming on Aug. 26. What they heard was a bit of a muddle

Aug. 31, 2011

[J. Bradford DeLong] Ben Bernanke’s dream world

[Andrew Hacker and Claudia Dreifus] Harvard’s No. 1 ranking makes us wonder

The U.S. News and World Report “Best Colleges” rankings, which will be published next month, are viewed as a Baedeker and Bible by more than 5 million American parents considering colleges and universities for their high-school juniors and seniors. We think that parents should use this guide with ca

Aug. 31, 2011