The Korea Herald

[Meghan Daum] When being authentic requires hard work, focus

Want to be authentic? Good luck! These days it takes deliberate effort, focus, even a long-term commitment to change. This might sound surprising to those of you who associate authenticity with just being yourself, but misconceptions about authenticity abound, not least among them the idea that it c

Aug. 14, 2011

[Meghan Daum] When being authentic requires hard work, focus

[Jon Lee] Trust your employees

The following is a second personal letter to SCB Group CEO, Peter Sands, from Jon Lee, a management consultant, regarding the current disputes at SC First Bank. The first letter was published on July 27. ― Ed.Dear Mr. Peter Sands:I wrote to you two weeks ago in this newspaper column to provide you w

Aug. 14, 2011

[Daniel Akst] Americans have Congress’ number

The American people believe all kinds of things. Three years ago, for example, a Harris Poll found that 71 percent believe in angels but only 47 percent believe in evolution.That’s not all. Skepticism on global warming has been increasing, and surprising numbers believe all kinds of nonsense about t

Aug. 14, 2011

[Jonathan Weil] Where is the money to save banks?

Forget free-market fundamentals. What matters most to the capital markets now is whether the governments of the U.S. and western Europe have the will and the wherewithal to save the global financial system from disaster yet again. A healthy climate for the efficient allocation of capital, this

Aug. 12, 2011

[Jonathan Weil] Where is the money to save banks?

[Zhang Jie and Zhong Feiteng] The Asia-Pacific region poses multiple challenges

Defence communications between China and Japan were interrupted and bilateral ties became tense after a Chinese trawler collided with Japan Coast Guard ships in September last year near Diaoyu Islands. Despite the untoward development, China responded sympathetically, both at the government and nong

Aug. 12, 2011

[Jasper Kim] Underbelly of the ‘Korean Wave’

Imagine a world where slavery, often involving underage and unsuspecting victims, is not only condoned, but legally enforced. This is not fiction, but fact, in one of Asia’ most prolific entertainment export-oriented country ― South Korea (Asia’s fourth largest economy and OECD member state) ― invol

Aug. 12, 2011

[Jasper Kim] Underbelly of the ‘Korean Wave’

[Editorial] No time for complacency

The combination of soaring consumer prices at home and the worsening global economic outlook has ostensibly added a further complication to China’s endeavor to keep economic growth on track while preventing overheating. As the world’s second largest economy, China will have no chance of maintaining

Aug. 12, 2011

[Editorial] Taiwan cannot risk taking growing waistlines lightly

A local television news station reported on Monday that 42 percent of Taiwanese people over the age of 20 are considered overweight. The term “overweight” is somewhat subjective and depending on the person could range from having just an extra kilo or two to bordering on obesity. But the statistic i

Aug. 12, 2011

[Tulsathit Taptim] Yingluck’s journey as Thai prime minister has begun

So, Episode III here we come.It has officially begun, with Yingluck Shinawatra vowing to bring back political peace and never to work for any particular person or group. If that sounds very familiar to you, it’s because Abhisit Vejjajiva made exactly the same pledges in late 2008. Out he has limped

Aug. 12, 2011

[David Ignatius] Democracy challenged again

WASHINGTON ― Free markets, in theory, are supposed to be self-correcting. When they’re knocked off balance, changes in prices should gradually bring the system back to equilibrium. The same process of regeneration is supposed to operate with democratic political systems, too. What we have been

Aug. 11, 2011

[David Ignatius] Democracy challenged again

[Bob Ray Sanders] Where have all the leaders gone? Not to D.C.

My first visit to the U.S. Capitol was in 1971. From the moment I set foot in the place, I was captivated by its majesty.Although impressed with the building’s sheer beauty and grandeur, I was awed when I looked down to the floor of the Upper House from the Senate gallery and saw Sen. Edward Kennedy

Aug. 11, 2011

[Park Sang-seek] Is multiculturalism a threat to the nation and the world?

Norwegian mass murderer Anders Behring Breivik claimed in his online manifesto 2083 that multiculturalism is the core ideology of the left extremists he calls cultural Marxists. According to him, cultural Marxists include orthodox Marxists, suicidal liberals and capitalist globalists. He does not de

Aug. 11, 2011

[Park Sang-seek] Is multiculturalism a threat to the nation and the world?

[Ron Klain] Obama shows high-stake gambling streak

Among the many misconceptions about Barack Obama is that he is cautious. In fact, it is hard to think of a modern president in recent times who has been more willing to take big risks, not because he is reckless, but because he is willing to suffer potential short-term setbacks to achieve a desired

Aug. 11, 2011

[Aristides N. Hatzis] Lessons from Greece

For the past 18 months Greece has been the epicenter of the European sovereign debt crisis. Its enormous national debt (127 percent of GDP before the first bailout in May 2010, reaching 160 percent by the end of 2011) and its ever-expanding deficit (14 percent before the austerity measures) were so

Aug. 11, 2011

[Simon Tilford] Eurobonds: Lifeboat for eurozone

LONDON ― The eurozone’s institutional weaknesses have been laid bare. The attempt to run a common monetary policy without a common treasury has failed. Investors do not know what they are buying when they purchase an Italian bond ― is it backstopped by Germany or not?We now know that the best credit

Aug. 10, 2011

[Simon Tilford] Eurobonds: Lifeboat for eurozone

[Doyle McManus] Job creation is Obama’s biggest challenge

The central question facing Barack Obama’s 2012 reelection campaign is this: Can the president persuade voters to let him keep his job when so many of them have lost theirs?Last week, after another run of bad economic news, the president and his staff tried their best to sound upbeat. In public, the

Aug. 10, 2011

[Virginia Postrel] Obama glamour can’t fix charisma deficit

One thing is clear in the aftermath of the debt-limit debate: U.S. President Barack Obama has lost his glamour. The alluring icon of hope and change has become just another pol, derided by his supporters as well as his opponents. As one headline succinctly put it: “Obama succumbs to the ways of Wash

Aug. 10, 2011

[Editorial] Falling bank stocks offer a too-big-to-fail wakeup call

Bank of America and Citigroup stood out for all the wrong reasons in Monday’s market meltdown. Shares of the two banks led the decline amid new doubts about the quality of the assets buried on their balance sheets. Investors now believe that Bank of America’s net worth is only about a third of what

Aug. 10, 2011

[Brahma Chellaney] Ethnic minority lands emerge as China’s Achilles heel

NEW DELHI ― In the face of spreading civil unrest among China’s Uighur population, the Chinese government’s love-fest with its all-weather ally, Pakistan, may be starting to sour. Indeed, the authorities in China’s Xinjiang province are charging that a prominent Uighur separatist that they captured

Aug. 10, 2011

[Brahma Chellaney] Ethnic minority lands emerge as China’s Achilles heel

[Lee Jae-min] The Arctic Ocean in the heat

Icebergs, cold water and the Arctic Ocean: What else could be a better topic to cool off during the sizzling weather of August? Global warming has brought yet another issue to the table: navigation through the Arctic. As the icebergs melt and frozen swaths give way, new shipping routes emerge throug

Aug. 9, 2011

[Lee Jae-min] The Arctic Ocean in the heat