[Serendipity] Old habits die hard

I am a lists person. I am constantly making lists: the to-do list, the shopping list, the weekly menu list, the book list and the potential interviewee list, not to mention the list that tops them all -- the bucket list. I carry around a small Moleskin notebook containing these lists, each one marked with a colorful Post-it flag. Of course, I don’t get around to doing nearly half the things on the lists. It is a well-lived day when a third of the items on my daily to-do list are co

Sept. 18, 2020

[Lee Kyong-hee] Risk literacy matters in coronavirus war

A virus doesn’t even have its own cells to replicate. It needs a host cell to multiply. A virus is a submicroscopic microbe. That means it is too small to be seen even with a microscope. However, this invisible pseudo life-form can wreak monstrous-sized havoc in populations. Some leaders even speak as if it can see and hear. US Sen. Kamala Harris’ remarks at the virtual Democratic National Convention last month are telling. The first woman of color to vie for Washington’s sec

Sept. 17, 2020

[Noah Smith] Trump’s trade war failed. Can Biden do better?

With the US presidential campaign heading into the home stretch, President Donald Trump will surely try to tout his record on economic issues. But the numbers don’t speak well of his policies. Unfortunately, the approach of his rival, Joe Biden, threatens to make some of the same mistakes. Trump was elected in 2016 on a promise to restore American competitiveness, revitalize the flagging manufacturing sector, and reduce gaping trade deficits. But even before the pandemic, his trade war lo

Sept. 17, 2020

[Kim Seong-kon] How democracy deteriorates in the pandemic era

The famous motto of the US state of New Hampshire is “Live Free or Die.” The phrase is adopted from a toast by New Hampshire’s famed Gen. John Stark of the American Revolutionary War, who wrote in 1809, “Live free or die: Death is not the worst of evils.” That means that losing freedom is worse than death. It also resonates with what Patrick Henry said in 1775, “Give me liberty or give me death!” Those phrases especially appeal to the American mind becau

Sept. 16, 2020

[Daniel Moss] Japan’s policy revolution could start at the margins

Japan’s likely next prime minister is a huge fan of Shinzo Abe. That doesn’t mean Yoshihide Suga is a carbon copy. Indeed, the shades of difference between the two men on some key issues are important, particularly when the economy in question is the world’s third-largest, a critical part of global manufacturing and trade, and a pioneer of ultra-low interest rates and quantitative easing. The first issue to consider is Japan’s consumption tax. Increases have been blamed

Sept. 16, 2020

[Ivo Daalder] While the West dithers, Russia stays busy

August was busy for Russia this year. While dealing with growing popular protests in the east, Moscow has sought to distract attention by engaging in nefarious activities, both at home and abroad. It’s prepared to intervene in neighboring Belarus, confronted US military forces on land, at sea and in the air, stepped up its interference in the US presidential elections and poisoned yet another opposition figure. None of these activities have gone unnoticed in Europe or the United States. B

Sept. 15, 2020

[Faye Flam] ’Follow the science’ just a slogan

Anyone observing President Donald Trump’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic in the US would have good reason to wonder if his administration ever had much of a strategy for handling it. Last week the press accused one of his medical advisers, Scott Atlas, of promoting a “herd immunity strategy” amounting to letting COVID-19 run rampant. Atlas denies this, but a more important issue is what our strategy is, or should be, and what Joe Biden’s strategy would be if he&rsqu

Sept. 15, 2020

[David Fickling] Australia has a nuclear option in China diplomacy

After years of slow deterioration, diplomatic relations between China and Australia have taken a sharp turn for the worse. The disputes range from pressure on journalists, to spying allegations, to an investigation of Australia’s wine exports. Beijing holds most of the cards, but Australia does have one doomsday weapon at its disposal. It’s better not used. The conflict echoes China’s widening disputes with other countries. Two journalists working for Australian Broadcasting C

Sept. 14, 2020

[Clara Ferreira Marques] Brave new words hint at a less democratic future

In politics, language is a reliable indicator of the direction of travel. Today, rhetoric from the Republican Party convention in the US to India, and from Poland to Brazil, points away from liberal democracy. The change has rarely been swifter than in Hong Kong. The markers of autocratic speech are globally apparent. There’s the divisive “us versus them” rhetoric, the ad hominem attacks, the inflammatory comments on dissenters and the fetishization of law and order, feeding o

Sept. 14, 2020

[Digital Simplicity] Why smartphone users need more midrange models

When technology advances and related gadgets become widely available, what tends to happen is a steady decrease in hardware prices. Mainstream smartphones are getting pricier each year, putting a strain on limited household budgets. Of course, Korean consumers can get popular smartphones from Samsung Electronics and Apple at a discount by signing up for data plans with mobile carriers. But even with such deals, the prices for the latest Galaxy and iPhone series are easily above 1 million won

Sept. 12, 2020

[Robert J. Fouser] America’s ‘lost two decades’

Nineteen years ago today, terrorists hijacked two planes and flew them into the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York City, killing thousands. George W. Bush, the US president at the time declared a “War on Terror” that led to the US military action in Afghanistan and Iraq. At home, wide-reaching reforms were adopted to secure air travel and prevent another terrorist attack. Shortly after the attacks, the media was full of stories about how the attacks would “chang

Sept. 11, 2020

[Ferdinando Giugliano] ECB needs Italy and Spain to help themselves

The European Central Bank’s governing council meets this week amid a less optimistic mood than before the summer break. The recovery in Europe is losing speed and there are early signs of divergence, with some euro-zone countries rebounding faster than others. ECB President Christine Lagarde still has several tricks up her sleeve to help the monetary union respond to the pandemic’s economic shock. But, unlike previous crises in Europe, governments will have to take the lead this tim

Sept. 10, 2020

[Kim Myong-sik] ‘Prosecution reform’ drive takes wrong direction

What is prosecution reform? They say it is to ensure that our prosecutors respect human rights in every stage of a criminal investigation and that they maintain independence from outside interference while their power is restricted to establishing justice. Regrettably, we witnessed over the past three years no evidence of the above being realized. Instead, signs are that politics creeps into the process of law enforcement and, worst of all, favoritism rules the posting of prosecutors. Adding a

Sept. 10, 2020

[Ramesh Ponnuru] A smarter way for Biden to attack Trump

President Donald Trump poses an unusual problem for his opposition. He’s “a target-rich environment,” said Ruy Teixeira, a senior fellow at the liberal Center for American Progress. “He has befuddled his opponents by giving them too much to react to. It keeps the Democrats from having a disciplined message about why Trump sucks.” Depending on the news cycle, the anti-Trump message may be that he is a tool of Russian President Vladimir Putin, or a racist, or a threa

Sept. 9, 2020

[Kim Seong-kon] We should be like the ‘Snows of Kilimanjaro‘

Recently I came across “Snows of Kilimanjaro,” a collection of English poems by a Korean-American poet, Yearn Hong Choi. The title intrigued me because I very much admire Ernest Hemingway’s short story, “The Snows of Kilimanjaro.” In the epitaph of the celebrated story, Hemingway wrote, “Kilimanjaro is a snow-covered mountain 19,710 feet high, and is said to be the highest mountain in Africa. Its western summit is called the Masai “Ngàje Ngà

Sept. 9, 2020

[Michael R. Strain] Exploding US debt is a problem, not an emergency

The US Government programs to blunt the economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic will make the federal budget deficit much wider in 2020 than at any point in the last 75 years. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office’s new forecasts, released this week, predict that the deficit will be over $3.3 trillion this year, or 16 percent of annual economic output. Measured as a share of GDP, the annual US budget deficit hasn’t hit double digits since 1945. The CBO forecasts that the 20

Sept. 8, 2020

[Jan-Werner Mueller] The parties must go on

The recent Republican National Convention in the US was scandalous for many reasons -- from the misuse of the White House as a campaign prop (in violation of the Hatch Act and long-standing norms) and the brazen mendacity of its speakers to the parade of Trump family members. Amid the tawdry spectacle of the GOP being transformed into a subsidiary of the Trump Organization, one shocking aspect stood out: The party offered no platform. The Republicans’ only purpose, apparently, is “to

Sept. 8, 2020

[Mihir Sharma] Rest of Asia will miss Abe more than Japan will

A month before he ended his first stint as Japan’s prime minister in 2007, Shinzo Abe addressed the Indian Parliament in New Delhi. Quoting the Mughal scholar-prince Dara Shikoh, Abe spoke of the “confluence of the two seas” -- the Indian and Pacific Oceans -- that were undergoing a “dynamic coupling as seas of freedom and of prosperity.” India and Japan, said Abe, shared an interest in and responsibility for securing these seas “by joining forces with like-mi

Sept. 7, 2020

[Kay C. James] We must educate future generations on myths and realities of socialism

A frightening 70 percent of millennials say they would back a socialist candidate for office. And today, we are seeing many socialist ideas gaining traction, such as “free” college tuition for all, government-run health care and a guaranteed income even for able-bodied people who don’t work. While we can blame some of the attraction to socialism on its false promises of fixing every social ill, the nearly inescapable indoctrination present in our schools and universities, and

Sept. 7, 2020