[Noah Feldman] Last check on presidential power

After four years of President Donald Trump’s assault on the US constitution, it comes down to this. The courts have done what they could to limit the damage; the House of Representatives impeached him; and the Senate let him get away with it. Now all that remains is the final check provided by the constitution: a vote of the people. James Madison would have seen this coming. While the constitution was being ratified, he argued that its checks and balances would preserve the liberty that t

Nov. 4, 2020

[Kim Seong-kon] Domestic ghosts vs. foreign evils

“Munyeodo,” which can be translated as “Portrait of a Shaman” or “The Shaman Painting,” is a short story by Kim Tong-ni that depicts the clash between traditional Korean shamanism and Western Christianity in premodern Korea. In the story, Kim superbly portrays the waning of traditional Korean culture in the face of the overwhelming influence of Western culture in early 20th century Korea. Kim’s story ends tragically, as the shaman mother kills her Christ

Nov. 4, 2020

[Stephen L. Carter] The odds of a disputed election

As Election Day nears, the possibility of a disputed presidential election is worrying a lot of people. You’ve heard the scenarios: An embittered Donald Trump loses but refuses to leave the Oval Office. An embittered Joe Biden loses but refuses to concede. Absentee ballots that arrive after Nov. 3 aren’t counted. Or they are counted. The angry left takes to the streets. The angry right takes to the streets. Lawyers take to the courts. Whatever goes wrong -- and chances are somethin

Nov. 3, 2020

[Jean Pisani-Ferry] Globalization needs rebuilding, not just repair

A second term for US President Donald Trump would complete the demolition of the post-war international economic system. Trump’s aggressive unilateralism, chaotic trade initiatives, loathing of multilateral cooperation, and disregard for the very idea of a global commons would overpower the resilience of the web of rules and institutions that underpin globalization. But would a victory for Joe Biden lead to a repair of the global system -- and, if so, of what kind? This is a much harder q

Nov. 3, 2020

[Lionel Laurent] Good news on COVID-19 from Asia

It’s easy to feel that there’s no light at the end of the COVID-19 tunnel. Europe’s intensive care wards are filling up again, pushing France and Germany into a fresh round of stay-at-home restrictions and lockdowns -- albeit ones designed to be softer than the first. Even countries hit hard by the first wave, such as Italy and Sweden, are seeing rising cases, suggesting herd immunity is a long way off. The US looks to have given up on controlling the pandemic until a vaccine

Nov. 2, 2020

[Noah Smith] Japan needs political will to meet its carbon pledge

Japan’s bold pledge to cut net carbon emissions to zero by 2050 is very doable, but will require a degree of political will and coordinated, farsighted policymaking that the nation hasn’t enjoyed for some time. The government’s declaration comes as part of a wave of similar promises. In particular, China, Japan’s regional rival, recently pledged carbon neutrality by 2060. The European Union’s date is 2050, and presidential candidate Joe Biden has promised to commi

Nov. 2, 2020

[Digital Simplicity] Changing technology for handling personal database

Evernote, a note-taking and archiving app, used to provide a much-needed free service to users with multiple devices for different platforms. I loved Evernote’s excellent functionality that offers access to my personal data on multiple platforms including desktop PC, smartphones and tablet computers. I have gratefully saved and organized my data in the free version of Evernote in the past 10 years. My data was synchronized seamlessly from my PC at home to smartphones on the go, and I l

Oct. 31, 2020

[Lee Kyong-hee] Overlooked front-line heroes amid the pandemic

Deaths of overworked delivery service workers -- 13 this year alone -- have exposed the reality of South Korea’s gig economy in this Year of the Pandemic. The delivery services that we enjoy, whether for food or any other product, are so amazingly convenient and fast that “flash delivery” and “bullet delivery” labels are common. The convenience surely takes a physical and emotional toll, but it is a cost that few of us stop to think about as we bring in our deli

Oct. 29, 2020

[Jon Healey] No, Mr. President, China is still not paying tariffs

President Donald Trump seems perpetually confused about who pays the tariffs of 10 percent to 25 percent that he’s imposed on imported goods. Either that, or he just won’t admit the truth: Trump’s tariffs are taxes on US purchasers, not foreign manufacturers. The issue came up again at the Oct. 22 presidential debate in Nashville, Tennessee, after moderator Kristen Welker of NBC News teed up a question for the two candidates about China policy. Welker started with former Vice

Oct. 29, 2020

[David Fickling] Zero hour is coming for emissions, believe it

It’s only natural to be skeptical when a political leader stands up and makes a promise about a target that’s far off, hard to achieve, and lacks a clear pathway. So one reaction to a report that Japan’s new prime minister, Yoshihide Suga, will pledge next week to reduce the country’s net carbon emissions to zero by 2050 might be: Really? After all, public and private Japanese banks are still funding new coal-fired power stations in Vietnam, Indonesia and Bangladesh, ex

Oct. 28, 2020

[Kim Seong-kon] Hurting people over political ideologies

So many of us these days cling to a particular political ideology to which we religiously subscribe. Then, almost as a matter of course, we build a faction of like-minded people and flock together, while excluding and discriminating against others. Once this occurs, it naturally follows that we begin to impose our ideology on others, forcing them to join our camp. Then, if they refuse, we wage war with them and lead witch hunts against them as if they are archenemies and heretics. Such is the sa

Oct. 28, 2020

[Andy Mukherjee] To retire rich, don’t leave too much to your kids

Like self-improvement books, the purpose of pension adequacy surveys is to make us feel lousy about ourselves.　 Lousy and scared: We haven’t saved enough because we’re myopic and lack self-control. We don’t have a retirement plan, and it’s getting late.　 And the nagging chases us right into our graves. At the back of our minds, there’s always the guilt that we should be leaving something -- actually, a lot -- to our children. So perhaps we shouldn’t bother h

Oct. 27, 2020

[Kevin Pham] What we’ve learned about COVID-19

As the pandemic wears on, month after month, it’s easy to assume nothing much has changed. But it has. We’re making more progress than many people may realize. Take Regeneron. President Donald Trump recently spoke of his efforts to usher this new therapeutic drug through the process for emergency use authorization and to make it available to the public, free of charge. This synthetic antibody medication was part of the president’s treatment plan when he was recently sickened w

Oct. 27, 2020

[Trudy Rubin] Biden would rescue foreign policy from ego and tweets

There has been little focus on foreign policy in the election campaign, and the debates didn’t much help. Maybe that’s because Donald Trump’s most intense foreign policy concern has been with Hunter Biden’s business interests abroad. But a look back at four years of Trump’s America First performance leads me to this conclusion: An imperfect Joe Biden is better suited to cope with a world in crisis than an erratic President Trump. Nothing better illustrates Trump&

Oct. 26, 2020

[Ana Palacio] A hope for Post-Trump world order

With the US presidential election nearing its apotheosis, predictions about what will come after are dominating discussions well beyond the United States. When it comes to international relations, forecasts range from apocalyptic to cautiously optimistic. But what is needed is an actual way forward, grounded in realism. By realism, I don’t mean the “realist” approach to international relations, which emphasizes the role of sovereign states as self-interested actors. By that st

Oct. 26, 2020

[Robert J. Fouser] It’s Biden’s election to lose

With a little more than a week to go in the US presidential election campaign, Joe Biden maintains a steady lead over President Donald Trump. For all the shocks and instability of 2020, Biden’s lead has been remarkably steady. Few races in recent history have been this stable. In late October 2019, the average of polls on the RealClearPolitics site, had Biden at 50 percent and Trump at 43 percent. A year later, the same average had Biden at 51 percent and Trump at 42.5 percent. During tha

Oct. 23, 2020

[Noah Smith] Time for some American optimism

Octavia Butler’s classic futurist novel “Parable of the Sower” recently made the New York Times bestseller list for the first time. It depicts an America falling apart at the seams due to violence, economic decline, and governmental dysfunction. But despite the chaos, the protagonist, Lauren Olamina, spends much of her time thinking about space exploration. Faced with a dystopian Earth, she motivates herself and her followers to survive by dreaming of the stars. Today, the US

Oct. 22, 2020

[Kim Myong-sik] Han Dong-hoon, symbol of sick prosecution system

An old Chinese saying goes: Cook the dog after catching the hare. This may be applied to the current turmoil in the state prosecution organization involving Prosecutor-General Yoon Suk-youl and Chief Prosecutor Han Dong-hoon who now face open pressure from Justice Minister Choo Mi-ae to leave the service. During the early days of the Moon Jae-in presidency, Yoon and Han were used as the warriors of law in the new administration’s purges on what were left over from the past conservative a

Oct. 22, 2020

[Francis Wilkinson] Paradoxical potential of Biden presidency

If Joe Biden enters the White House on the afternoon of Jan. 20, there is reason to expect that intraparty conflicts will come racing to the fore: between the Democratic left and Democratic moderates; between multicultural, debt-laden youth and Whiter, more affluent, suburbanites; between the alternate Sanders/AOC ticket and the actual Biden/Harris ticket. It’s also possible that Biden might succeed in having an awful lot of his political cake and eating it, too. US politics has changed

Oct. 21, 2020

[Kim Seong-kon] Seven baffling things in Korea

There are a myriad of enigmatic things happening in Korea these days, whether in the North or the South. For example, North Korea confuses us by showing us a friendly gesture recently, while displaying deadly weapons that can strike the South in a military parade. In South Korea, too, we are witnessing a plethora of sphinxlike things of late One of the inscrutable things in South Korea is the recent tendency of political parties to change their names continually. In fact, this phenomenon of pol

Oct. 21, 2020