The Korea Herald

[The Kansas City Star] America is stressed out, and the cause won’t surprise - politics

Feeling stressed?We are. According to a new survey from the American Psychological Association, so are you.Freaked out. Anxious. Nervous. That’s what America is these days, and the psychological association places the blame squarely on -- you aren’t going to be the slightest bit surprised -- politics.That means the rise of President Donald Trump and the usual Washington crew that voters greatly mistrust.The poll (yes, we know: Can you trust it?) of 1,000 adults taken right before Trump’s inaugur

March 1, 2017

[Justin Fox] Time to restart that old capitalism death watch

The global capitalist system has been having a tough decade. We can probably all agree on that.Lots of explanations have been offered for why things have been going so poorly: inadequate regulation, excessive regulation, excessive monetary easing, inadequate fiscal stimulus, inequality, “secular stagnation,” you name it.Wolfgang Streeck has another possibility for you to consider: Maybe capitalism is dying.Streeck is a German sociologist, the emeritus director of the Max Planck Institute for the

March 1, 2017

[Kim Myong-sik] The most desirable of three possibilities

Quite eerily, a notion that struck me upon hearing the news of Kim Jong-un’s suspected killing of his half brother Kim Jong-nam was whether evils can be measured and compared. The young dictator’s alleged orders to poison his international vagrant sibling to remove a potential rival to power will go down in history as the crime of the year or decade, putting its perpetrator at the top rank in the scale of evil, if there is such thing. Then my liberal thoughts are directed to a source of great co

March 1, 2017

[Kim Myong-sik] The most desirable of three possibilities

[Other View] How Europe can defend itself

Say this for Donald Trump: He is forcing Europeans to think more seriously about how to protect and defend their continent. 　The US president’s disparagement of NATO goes too far, and his focus on getting Europeans to spend more on defense is misplaced. That said, European nations have for too long treated their defense budgets as an extension of social policy. Expenditure on personnel is more than 50 percent of military spending in nearly all EU countries, compared with about a quarter in the U

March 1, 2017

[Kim Ji-hyun] South Korea, it's your good name

Reputation. It’s hard to build, and easy to forfeit. In fact, it’s one of the most fickle things in the world, especially for public figures who may one day be the public enemy, but the next become thoroughly redeemed with one right move. Speaking of reputations, one of the world’s most dangerous men lurks above the South Korean border -- North Korean leader Kim Jong-un who is suspected of masterminding the recent murder of his half brother Jong-nam.The crime, according to many, is interpreted t

March 1, 2017

[Kim Ji-hyun] South Korea, it's your good name

[Gina Barreca] Our secret treasures harbor memories

What object without inherent beauty or aesthetic importance has a deep and abiding significance for you? What do you treasure that nobody else would look at twice?　I have a black plastic shift key from an old electric typewriter on the bookcase above my computer at home. I’m staring at it as I write. To you it would look like nothing except a piece of junk, but to me it means a great deal. I’ve had it since 1982, from the days when I was living in a ground-floor apartment at the back of an old,

Feb. 28, 2017

[Adam Minter] How China can stop a pandemic

The deadliest outbreak of H7N9 bird flu since its discovery in 2013 is sweeping across China. It’s caused at least 100 deaths and has been detected in half the country’s provinces. So far, the virus seems to be spreading only between birds and the humans who slaughter them for food. But the potential for human-to-human transmission -- the trigger for a full-blown pandemic -- can’t be ruled out. In response, Chinese authorities have temporarily shut down live poultry markets in some of the countr

Feb. 28, 2017

[Robert J. Fouser] Will second-language learning disappear?

Throughout history, change has stirred insecurity as people try to hold on to the familiar as it crumbles before them. Good leaders understand the emerging world and offer a path through the tumult of adjustment. Bad leaders pretend that the old world will reassert itself and use insecurity to legitimize their leadership. Over the past several years, more bad leaders than good have emerged, forcing a discussion of the future off the table. The future doesn’t wait, of course, and technological de

Feb. 28, 2017

[Robert J. Fouser] Will second-language learning disappear?

[Kim Seong-kon] Looking for the third way

Although it still lurks in the guise of socialism, communism has completely failed and therefore has largely disappeared from the face of the earth. The same is true of the Cold War ideology. Strangely, however, only on the Korean Peninsula do we see the paradigms of communism and the Cold War mentality still at play. To our dismay, both capitalism and democracy, too, seem to have exhausted their possibilities these days. Capitalism, pushed to the extreme, created a Wall Street where money rules

Feb. 28, 2017

[Kim Seong-kon] Looking for the third way

[Gary Thompson] Oscar got best picture right on night of big gaffe

The “La La Land” Oscar-nominated song “Audition” contains an ode to unfulfilled dreams as an actress accustomed to trying and failing sings “Here’s to the mess we make.”You said it, sister.“Audition” didn’t win for best song, and as it turned out “La La Land” didn’t win for best picture, even though presenter Faye Dunaway announced that it had, sending “La La Land” producers to the stage for a victory celebration that ended abruptly when the terse accountan ts from Price Waterhouse let it be kno

Feb. 28, 2017

[Other View] The Trump White House is figuring out NATO

Slowly, and against the odds, the Trump administration is inching toward a more coherent foreign policy in Western Europe.President Donald Trump is, as usual, sending wildly mixed signals. He has said NATO -- the North Atlantic Treaty Organization -- is obsolete. He has been too cozy with Russian President Vladimir Putin, apparently terrifying the leadership of free democracies in Europe.But the president’s subordinates have delivered a stronger, more reassuring message. Vice President Mike Penc

Feb. 28, 2017

[Brian Hamilton] Wake up, America: You elected an entrepreneur

After listening to the entirety of President Donald Trump’s recent press conference and then reviewing the coverage of it, it’s obvious the media doesn’t understand and cannot accurately interpret his style and approach. Put simply, most people don’t understand how entrepreneurs think. 　It’s one of the main reasons -- outside Trump’s propensity for stepping on his own feet and seemingly making up facts on the fly -- for the confusion and chaos we’ve witnessed during his first weeks in office. 　F

Feb. 27, 2017

[Elaine Ou] Even China can’t kill bitcoin

Every time a government sets out to abolish something people like, the well-liked thing moves to where it can’t be stopped. This has happened with prohibition, gambling, the war on drugs and digital piracy. Now it’s happening in China, where the government has been trying to crack down on bitcoin.　As part of an effort to control capital outflows, the Chinese central bank required bitcoin exchanges to suspend withdrawals until they could update their compliance systems. Trading on the exchanges t

Feb. 27, 2017

[Elaine Ou] Even China can’t kill bitcoin

[Leonid Bershidsky] What Google hopes to gain by suing Uber

The legal battle that’s starting between Waymo, the self-driving car spin-off of Google’s former “moonshot” unit, and ride-hailing giant Uber appears to be all about trade secrets and patents. But there is a bigger issue behind it: Silicon Valley ethics and employee loyalty. 　The Waymo lawsuit contends that a former employee, Anthony Levandowski, downloaded 9.7 gigabytes of sensitive data about the company’s proprietary self-driving system, in particular its main element -- the LiDAR (Light Dete

Feb. 27, 2017

[Leonid Bershidsky] What Google hopes to gain by suing Uber

[Eli Lake] Taiwan's war against Uber

This should be a good time to be an American Internet company in Taiwan. The new president, Tsai Ing-wen, has pledged to build an Asian Silicon Valley on the island. And the new American president, Donald Trump has threatened a trade war with Taiwan‘s rivals in mainland China. The stars would appear to be aligned.　So it’s surprising that on Feb. 10, one of America‘s most successful digital companies, Uber, had to suspend its operations in Taiwan. At issue was a new law to impose fines up to $800

Feb. 27, 2017

[Albert R. Hunt] Trump's great chance to tell us what he really wants

President Donald Trump’s initial address to a joint session of the US Congress on Tuesday night may be the most anticipated in memory. Not, as Trump would claim, because he’s so compelling. Rather it’s because, when it comes to substance, we don’t know who he is.　For Presidents Barack Obama, George W. Bush and Ronald Reagan, a first February speech to Congress was a chance to add definition to well-articulated policy architecture. Trump, by contrast, has conveyed little sense of a governing stru

Feb. 27, 2017

[Other View] Trustworthy statistics are a vital asset

President Donald Trump’s penchant for “alternative facts” raises a troubling question: What if the same instinct leads him to pressure government agencies -- the ones that track everything from jobs to air quality -- into producing data to support whatever he wants to believe?If Trump won’t draw the line, the US Congress should.Two recent cases suggest where things may be headed. Trump’s officials have considered changing the way they calculate foreign trade balances, turning some surpluses into

Feb. 27, 2017

[John B. Quigley] No: Pre-emptive strike would trigger global disaster

Following January’s widely condemned ballistic missile test by Iran, rumors are rife that Israel is planning a military strike against Iranian missile sites. But the last thing President Donald Trump should do is give such an attack his blessing.　As anyone who watched the recent joint press conference with Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu knows, the Israeli prime minster is obsessed with highlighting the supposed Iranian threat. It’s all he wanted to talk about.　But Iran, regardless of what its lead

Feb. 26, 2017

[John B. Quigley] No: Pre-emptive strike would trigger global disaster

[Jonathan Bernstein] Don't ignore the dangers of a weak president

As the first month has passed of Donald Trump’s presidency with little sign of success, and some question whether he‘s even up to trying to turn his campaign platform into a real legislative agenda, it’s occurring to more and more people that what we‘re looking at is someone on the road to being a very weak president. My View colleague Ramesh Ponnuru has a nice item making that argument, focused on Trump’s reputation. 　Since Trump tends to lash out when losing, he remains a danger to democracy e

Feb. 26, 2017

[John Kass] Once lost, liberal journalists' mission suddenly found in time of Trump

Journalists “find a renewed sense of mission,” reports the New York Times.　That’s nice. There is some truth to this. And it‘s not fake news.　With the election of Donald Trump to the presidency, journalism, in a typical pattern of self-congratulatory excess, has dusted off an old cliche to announce that it is once again “speaking truth to power.”　Behold. That which was lost has now been found.　But it isn’t exactly like setting out on a long and frightening sea voyage to find an undiscovered count

Feb. 26, 2017

[John Kass] Once lost, liberal journalists' mission suddenly found in time of Trump