[Jean Pisani-Ferry] The path to climate credibility

On Oct. 25, the electric-vehicle producer Tesla’s market capitalization reached $1 trillion -- more than the combined value of the next 10 global car manufacturers. Even after discounting for exuberance, this is a strong indicator of how the threat of climate change is triggering a transformation of capitalism. To be sure, polluters still abound, and green washing is pervasive. But it would be a mistake to dismiss the changeover underway. Governments, however, are not on track to deliver

Nov. 2, 2021

[Andreas Kluth] China’s hypersonic gliders are a wake-up call

Too bad we as a species don’t have the luxury of worrying about just one existential threat at a time. We’re already rather busy with one -- a pandemic -- and about to talk our heads off about another -- climate change -- at the COP26 convention in Glasgow. Now we’re also reminded of a third, nuclear annihilation. This summer, China apparently tested new hypersonic missile systems -- as recently revealed by the Financial Times but officially denied by Beijing. What’s sho

Nov. 2, 2021

[Peter Singer] Tax system tilted toward the wealthy

“The taxation system has tilted toward the rich, and away from the middle class, in the last ten years. It is dramatic, and I don’t think it’s appreciated. And I think it should be addressed.” So said the billionaire investor Warren Buffett 18 years ago. He illustrated his claim by surveying his office staff: Although he was then the world’s second-richest person, he was paying a lower percentage of his income in taxes than his receptionist was. Since then, econom

Nov. 1, 2021

[Serendipity] To see, to be seen

A cacophony of images, a riot of colors. That is what I saw at an exhibition in Itaewon, central Seoul, heralded as a hip show. It surely had all the elements of an of-the-moment show: Provocative images, saturated colors, all the glamour of glossy artwork. “Toiletpaper: The Studio” at Hyundai Card Storage in Itaewon is a literal replica of the photography-based magazine Toiletpaper’s Milan studio. The exhibition is touted as the first to ever look inside the studio of Ita

Oct. 29, 2021

[Tyler Cowen] America’s national mood disorder

America is in a bad mood. Granted, this is a subjective impression, but it is common, and there is no shortage of analyses of it, examining everything from social media to income inequality. I would like to try on for size the simplest possible explanation: If Americans are much more negative than they used to be, it is mostly about politics, and in recent decades political failure has become much more pervasive than it used to be. The result is a kind of national mood disorder. I am not so nai

Oct. 29, 2021

[Timothy L. O‘Brien] Respond bluntly to Russian hackers

Russian hackers are still rummaging through global computer networks despite headline-grabbing Russian and Chinese attacks over the past several months that should have prompted corporations to tighten security and the White House to take more pointed and forceful action. Sure, some companies have said they want to communicate better about digital breaches and the Biden administration slapped some mild sanctions on Russia last spring. Russia’s response to this tepid pushback? Merriment, i

Oct. 28, 2021

[Lee Kyong hee] Missing Han Chang-ki, a cultural icon and pioneer

Han Chang-ki led Britannica Korea when South Korean society was on the threshold of rapid economic growth. Modernization was often synonymous with Westernization, and having a set of Encyclopedia Britannica bestowed instant status onto families. Han, in his early 30s, took advantage of the trend, introducing modern marketing strategies in direct consumer sales for the first time in the country. His sales network expanded to include as many as 1,500 personnel at its peak, whom he trained rigoro

Oct. 28, 2021

[Carlos Lopez] Multinationals’ responsibility for human rights

At the end of October, an intergovernmental working group will meet again to push for an international treaty governing multinational companies’ responsibility for upholding human rights. The working group, created in 2014 by the UN Human Rights Council, holds annual sessions that are attended faithfully by a large cohort of human rights advocates, environmentalists and members of social development organizations. But, while many countries, mostly from the Global South plus China, send rep

Oct. 27, 2021

[Kim Seong-kon] Waiting for a new leader of South Korea

In March 2022, South Korea will hold its next presidential election. All Koreans are anxiously awaiting the important day when they will have a new leader. Indeed, there is a compelling reason why the Korean people are eager to have an extraordinarily competent leader as their new president. South Korea is now facing an unprecedented series of economic, diplomatic and national security crises on the heels of the ongoing pandemic, intensifying US-China conflicts and the resumption of North Kore

Oct. 27, 2021

[Spencer H. Kim] North-South: Want success? First think the unthinkable

“We must be able to think about unthinkable things because when things become unthinkable, thinking stops and action becomes mindless.” So spoke the late US Sen. William J. Fulbright, who founded the famous Fulbright scholarships under which so many have been able to study in foreign countries and expand their horizons. Fulbright has always struck me as an unusually wise man. So I try to follow his advice. Let me tell you my conclusion from trying to think the unthinkable: If the US

Oct. 26, 2021

[Elizabeth Shackelford] Don’t ignore war in Ethiopia

Outsiders often view Africa as one large zone of war, poverty and tragedy. It’s not, but armed conflict is ongoing today in about a dozen of Africa’s 54 countries. While all of these conflicts are tragic, some are more relevant to the outside world than others. Ethiopia’s conflict is one of them. It began in November 2020, and the scale of suffering is massive. With Ethiopia’s size, geography and composition, the conflict could increase exponentially, with potential impl

Oct. 26, 2021

[Lee In-hyun] Chopin’s fearless love story

Around six years ago, many people interested in classical music received shocking news: a winner of the Chopin International Piano Competition was an unfamiliar pianist named Seong-jin Cho. He was the first Korean to be awarded first prize since the competition was established. The Chopin International Piano Competition is one of the most prestigious piano competitions in the world and was made to honor Chopin in 1927. Thanks to this competition, Seong-jin Cho became one of the world’s mos

Oct. 26, 2021

[Takatoshi Ito] Where will Kishida take Japan?

On Oct. 4, Fumio Kishida became Japan’s 100th prime minister, succeeding Yoshihide Suga, who held the office for only a year. Kishida secured the top job by prevailing in the four-person race to lead the Liberal Democratic Party. On Oct. 31, he and the LDP will face a national election for the House of Representatives, the lower but more powerful chamber of the Japanese Diet. Together with its coalition partner, the Komeito Party, the LDP is expected to win decisively. The latest NHK pol

Oct. 25, 2021

[Jeffrey D. Sachs] The G-20 and the means to climate safety

The philosopher Immanuel Kant famously said, “Whoever wills the end also wills … the indispensably necessary means to it that is in his control.” Put simply, when we set a goal, we ought to take the actions needed to achieve it. This is an essential maxim for our governments, and it should guide G-20 leaders when they meet in Rome at the end of October to confront the climate crisis. The world set a goal in the Paris climate agreement: to keep global warming within 1.5 degre

Oct. 25, 2021

[Digital Simplicity] Apple showcases a ‘game-changing’ way to sugarcoat past errors

Do you know how to get immense thanks and respect from an innocent kid in a single day? First, in the morning, you gently take away her favorite toy, claiming it’s bad and unnecessary for her. In the evening, you give the very same toy back to her, claiming it’s an “all-new” toy with the most advanced features ever that pro toy users love. To pull off this feat, you have to prepare a lot, including a nice presentation on a big screen and plenty of complex charts that just

Oct. 23, 2021

[Robert J. Fouser] South Korea’s ‘with COVID’ turn

Soon half the world’s population will have been vaccinated for COVID-19. As of this writing, 49 percent, or 3.76 billion people, have received at least one dose. This is impressive considering that the first doses were given only ten months ago. Though much work remains, particularly in addressing vaccine inequality, the trajectory is favorable. By the end of 2022, the world could be over 90 percent vaccinated, which should bring the pandemic to an end. After a slow start, South Korea has

Oct. 22, 2021

[Doyle McManus] A chance to fix climate warming

This has been a year marked by terrifying news about climate change: extreme weather, massive wildfires, persistent drought in some areas and catastrophic flooding in others. The sense of impending doom was made official when the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change warned that the world is almost certain to blow past the target set by the 2015 Paris Agreement of holding the increase in global temperature to 1.5 degrees Celsius above the 19th-century level. That was

Oct. 21, 2021

[Kim Myong-sik] Housing project scandal awaits people’s verdict

Lee Jae-myung, the presidential nominee of South Korea’s ruling Democratic Party of Korea, has odds of below 50:50 for winning in the election next March. This forecast is based on the results of recent opinion polls in which nearly 60 percent of respondents expressed desire for a change of power. A crucial variable is whether the opposition community will be able to produce a single candidate to take on the 57-year-old governor of Gyeonggi Province. Lee and the Democratic Party still ha

Oct. 21, 2021

[Martin Schram] Are these the US’ just desserts?

First came October’s ominous headlines from half a world away: China was suddenly darkening Taiwan’s air defense zone skies with record numbers of warplanes -- 150 sorties in the first two weeks of October. Their undeclared fly-by missions were far more menacing than Beijing’s eruptions of propaganda-machined war clouds. But on Oct. 13, in case Western policymakers didn’t get what is really at stake, the wizards behind Washington’s conventional wisdom curtains just

Oct. 20, 2021

[Kim Seong-kon] The power of ‘bad girls’ in history

Traditionally, men have harbored prejudices against smart and capable women. Feminist scholars have pointed out how often a shrewd woman in a fairytale is called a “witch” or “wicked stepmother” by male writers. Chauvinistic social conventions describe astute and perceptive women only as “bad girls.” However, those “bad girls” have accomplished many splendid things with their creativity and competence. Recently, I came across an intriguing book, &

Oct. 20, 2021