The Korea Herald

[David Ignatius] Admiral Mullen bids farewell

WASHINGTON ― Talking to Adm. Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, in his final week in the job, I found myself wondering if we are entering a “post-military” age, when our top officers understand that the biggest problems can’t be solved with military power. Time and again, v

Sept. 28, 2011

[David Ignatius] Admiral Mullen bids farewell

[Robert Reich] Creating jobs by lowering wages

Rick Perry and Mitt Romney can duke it out over who created the most jobs, but governors have as much influence over job growth in their states as roosters do over sunrises.States don’t have their own monetary policies so they can’t lower interest rates to spur job growth. They can’t spur demand thr

Sept. 28, 2011

[Robert Reich] Creating jobs by lowering wages

New ways to make money talk in campaign finance disclosure

Justice Anthony Kennedy’s majority decision last year in Citizens United, which allowed corporations to contribute unlimited sums toward electioneering, was controversial. But the court’s vision of campaign finance disclosure, which was endorsed by every justice except Clarence Thomas, was not. The

Sept. 28, 2011

[Meghan Daum] Chick flick television

Perhaps it’s been brought to your attention that this is a big week for retrograde representations of women on television. Monday last week marked the premiere of NBC’s “The Playboy Club,” a noir-ish look at Hugh Hefner’s flagship Chicago club in 1963, and Sunday saw the launch of ABC’s “Pan Am,” a

Sept. 28, 2011

[Doyle McManus] The Republican Party’s hard-right tilt

We’ve now seen three full-dress debates among the Republican politicians who want to be the next president of the United States, and here’s what we’ve learned:They all believe taxes are too high, even though federal taxes are lower as a percentage of the U.S. economy than any time in the last 60 yea

Sept. 28, 2011

commentary-Pesek

China as J.P. Morgan Might Have to Save World By William Pesek BloombergChina and the U.S. finally found something to agree on: Europe is doomed and might take the world’s two biggest economies down with it. Neither officials in Beijing nor Washington are actually using the “D word.” They don’t need

Sept. 28, 2011

[Max Boot] Confirm Robert Ford as Syrian ambassador

Our embattled man in Damascus, Ambassador Robert Ford, is threatened not only by the Syrian regime but by Republican senators who are dragging their feet on confirming his appointment. Their opposition, which is founded on the premise that we should not dignify Bashar Assad’s regime with an ambassad

Sept. 27, 2011

[Daniel Fiedler] KORUS FTA agreement, again

Four years ago South Korea and the United States first signed a free trade agreement. At that time many Koreans and foreigners rejoiced in anticipation of lower priced foods, cars and other staples from the United States. However, due to special interest groups in both countries, the agreement was n

Sept. 27, 2011

[Daniel Fiedler] KORUS FTA agreement, again

Direct talks needed for Palestinian statehood

When I was 1 year old, my parents and their neighbors had occasion to be glued to their radio sets to listen to a very special broadcast. It was Nov. 29, 1947, when the General Assembly of the United Nations voted on the Partition Plan of then British-ruled Palestine between Arabs and Jews.One by on

Sept. 27, 2011

[Pankaj Mishra] The socialist push behind India’s capitalist rise

Twenty years ago, India faced a fiscal crisis caused by profligate public spending and rising oil prices after the first Persian Gulf War. There was a risk it would default on its international payments. The finance minister, an English-educated Sikh economist named Manmohan Singh, responded to an a

Sept. 27, 2011

[Kim Seong-kon] Politics in the age of pop idols

We now live in the age of pop idols and cultural icons. Ever since the popular American television show “American Idol” was launched in 2002, the term “idol” has been widely used to refer to pop heroes who immediately turn into cultural icons. “American Idol,” a spin-off from the British show, “Pop

Sept. 27, 2011

[Kim Seong-kon] Politics in the age of pop idols

[Editorial] Seoul mayoral race

The main opposition Democratic Party has nominated Rep. Park Young-sun, a former TV anchorwoman, as its candidate for the Oct. 26 Seoul mayoral by-election. She will face yet another contest in a week to select a unified candidate representing the liberal opposition forces.Her contender Park Won-soo

Sept. 26, 2011

[Daoud Kuttab] Palestine’s switch to different tactics is wise move

RAMALLAH ― The idea of Palestine becoming a permanent member of the United Nations originated, say Palestinians, with none other than U.S. President Barack Obama. Speaking at the U.N. General Assembly on Sept. 23, 2010, Obama said that he hoped that “when we come back here next year, we can have an

Sept. 26, 2011

[David Ignatius] Remedies for drone addiction

WASHINGTON ― What “rules of war” should apply to Predator drones, the eerily efficient weapons that cruise the skies and target adversaries with the precision of a sharpshooter’s bullet? It’s an urgent question ― not simply for the United States, which is expanding its use of drones, but for dozens

Sept. 26, 2011

[David Ignatius] Remedies for drone addiction

[Andrew Wolman] The environmental case for nuclear energy

Six months after the Fukushima disaster, the repercussions of history’s second-largest nuclear meltdown are still being felt, not only in Japan but around the world. Predictably, people are rethinking the wisdom of relying on nuclear power. The German and Swiss governments have pledged to phase out

Sept. 26, 2011

[Albert R. Hunt] Independents still seek their 2012 anointed one

Political independents, who account for more than one-quarter of the U.S. electorate and are probably the key to the 2012 presidential election, are voicing strong reservations about Barack Obama as well as the Republican brand. As the national election goes into high gear with more than 13 months t

Sept. 26, 2011

The G20 must get serious about reforming the IMF

The summer jitters, which brought memories from the panicky fall of 2008, have left little doubt about how fragile the recovery from the great crisis has been and how rocky the road ahead will continue to be. This should not be entirely surprising given the magnitude of the shock endured in 2008-09.

Sept. 26, 2011

The G20 must get serious about reforming the IMF

[Peter Goldmark] Flickers of freedom across the Balkans

BELGRADE, Serbia ― Most Americans, myself included, know very little about the Balkans ― except, perhaps, that last week’s men’s U.S. Open champ, Novak Djokovic, is from Serbia. I’m visiting now, and the headline is: Countries in the Balkans are groping their way out of centuries of bloodshed and op

Sept. 25, 2011

[Nouriel Roubini] How to prevent a depression

AMSTERDAM ― The latest economic data suggests that recession is returning to most advanced economies, with financial markets now reaching levels of stress unseen since the collapse of Lehman Brothers in 2008. The risks of an economic and financial crisis even worse than the previous one ― now involv

Sept. 25, 2011

[Nouriel Roubini] How to prevent a depression

[William Pesek] Underwear model shows an economy how to grow

So this is what it has come to for Japan Inc.: a future in underwear instead of cars, color TVs or industrial robots. Long before 2010, when China surpassed it to become Asia’s biggest economy and Apple Inc. unleashed the iPad, Japan fancied itself a nation fated for global primacy. Its technology w

Sept. 25, 2011