[Conor Sen] Be prepared for profitless recovery

Reopening the US economy is going to be a slow, painful process and nothing like turning a light switch back on. Economic activity and employment is going to be down significantly for a while. If there’s any good news for workers it’s that the economic activity that does occur will be more labor-intensive than it was before the coronavirus dealt such a huge blow to the economy. We’re used to the past couple of rebounds from recessions being jobless recoveries, but this one wi

April 19, 2020

[Digital Simplicity] Unprecedented experiment with remote learning

South Korea is implementing an unprecedented educational experiment for remote learning due to the coronavirus pandemic that is sweeping the entire world. The question is whether the country can get something positive out of its massive experiment, instead of losing hope in the face of loud complaints about the still fledgling virtual learning environment. On Wednesday, some 3.12 million students across the nation started the new semester through online learning. They were the second group

April 18, 2020

[Clara Ferreira Marques] Poorer nations need their own pandemic toolkit

With death rates beginning to peak in Western countries, the epicenter of the novel coronavirus crisis is moving toward the developing world. Yet bare hospitals, armies of informal workers and sprawling slums mean the poorest nations have struggled to pull down the shutters. Experiences in Asia and elsewhere suggest that limiting chaotic mass migration to rural areas can be a start. Throw in cash handouts and a concerted effort to educate and inform, and efforts to contain the virus begin to loo

April 17, 2020

[Jay Ambrose] Will socialism follow coronavirus?

Sen. Bernie Sanders has suspended his campaign for the presidency, but not his campaign for socialism, and I do mean socialism. It’s often said that, by any true definition of the term, he falls way short. In fact, if you check out his policy proposals, he’s there, definitely there, and we still have leftist cheers for a transition conceivably made more likely by the coronavirus pandemic. What Sanders wants is collective control of the economy, of production, distribution and trade

April 16, 2020

[Ivo Daalder] Amid the pandemic, a sobering lesson

For the past 30 years, international politics have been shaped by two fundamental realities: America’s unrivaled power and the forces of globalization. While already waning for some time, both realities are threatened with death blows from the COVID-19 pandemic. America emerged from the Cold War in 1990 as the sole remaining superpower. Its military was larger than that of the next 10 countries combined, and it was the only one with true global reach. Its economy accounted for more than a

April 15, 2020

[Kim Seong-kon] Will April be the cruelest month? Vote with hope

T.S. Eliot’s monumental poem “The Waste Land” begins with the famous line, “April is the cruelest month.” Eliot refers to April as the cruelest month because spring rain wakes us up from our warm, comfortable hibernation. The poem continues with a touch of sarcasm: “winter kept us warm, covering/ earth with forgetful snow.” Now, spring has come and we have to wake up and remember who we are and where we are. Today is Election Day in Korea for National

April 15, 2020

[Trudy Rubin] Virus lessons from Korea, Germany

As US fatalities from COVID-19 rise, Germany‘s death rate from the virus is roughly half that of America’s. As America‘s front-line health workers still struggle to obtain face masks, South Korea has a smooth system to distribute masks to its health workers and its entire population. Both countries are democracies and US allies, not authoritarian regimes like China. So shouldn’t we be looking at what these countries are doing right, and whether their methods are appli

April 12, 2020

[Ana Palacio] Can liberal democracy survive COVID-19?

By some mix of cruel irony and remarkable prescience, the theme of last year’s Venice Biennale -- the biennial art exhibition’s 58th incarnation -- was: “May you live in interesting times.” The line, purportedly a translation of an old Chinese curse, was meant to highlight the precariousness of life in this dangerous and uncertain age. With the COVID-19 pandemic ravaging the world, and credible global leadership nowhere to be seen, that reality has become impossible to

April 11, 2020

[Serendipity] Too close for comfort?

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.” So it feels today, the 10th day of voluntary self-isolation at home. Much to my relief, my younger child and husband returned home from the UK safe and in good health at the end of March, their plans disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic. The two are following the government’s orders for returnees to immediately go into self-isolation at home for 14 days and to be tested for the new coronavirus. Out of an abundance of caut

April 10, 2020

[Kim Myong-sik] Shoddy new parties corrupt election environment

　Liberty, democracy, peace, independence, progress, unification, justice -- these are words that have traditionally graced the titles of South Korean political parties over the past decades. 　What is regrettable about the Korean political environment today is that the actual performances of the parties here have little to do with the ideals adopted for their titles. After successive restructuring of parties and regrouping of politicians in recent years, the titles of Korea’s political

April 9, 2020

[Robert J. Fouser] Contribution to post-virus future

As the COVID-19 pandemic tightened its grip on the world, the focus has remained on slowing the spread to save lives and reduce the burden on strained medical systems. Nearly half the population of the world is under some sort of lockdown as governments adopt social distancing as the primary defense against the disease. This has caused a sharp contraction in economic activity that threatens the livelihoods of many. Amid the dire news, pundits have begun to turn their attention to a post-pandemi

April 8, 2020

[Kim Seong-Kon] What we should do in post-coronavirus era

It may be too early to predict what will happen in the post-coronavirus world. Yet already one hears foretold that when the crisis is over, the world will not be the same. For example, globalization will surely decline and nationalism will rise instead because many people believe globalization is responsible for the spread of the pandemic. Undeniably, easy international travel and borderless mobility contributed to the spread of the disease. However, the reverse of globalization will not be ea

April 8, 2020

[Digital Simplicity] Mask up for yourself and others

When I got out of my apartment and took the elevator down to the first floor, I happened to stand with a neighbor who did not wear a face mask. I got a little nervous about his apparent violation of basic guidelines to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus, but tried not to express such a feeling. But the thought of getting infected in an enclosed space made me feel uneasy during the brief elevator ride. Is this too much? Perhaps I overreacted a bit. But a number of people in South K

April 3, 2020

[Trudy Rubin] Data sans politics can curb virus

Back in the 1950s, Sgt. Joe Friday of the TV show “Dragnet” famously advised witnesses: “Just the facts, ma’am.” That phrase became a national slogan, long before the very concept of “facts” was clouded by social media. As the number of coronavirus cases soars, with Americans anxious to know when stay-at-home orders will end, we desperately need the facts, based on reliable data. Instead, we are deluged with COVID-19 misinformation from the White House

April 2, 2020

[Noah Smith] Coronavirus exposes US as civilization in decline

Crises such as wars, depressions, natural disasters and pandemics can reveal differences in how effectively a society organizes itself. In the 1600s and 1700s, for example, Britain’s more advanced tax system allowed it to outspend Spain and France, while Prussia’s efficient army let it overcome larger opponents such as Austria. In the American Civil War, the Union’s industrial prowess allowed it to outlast and overwhelm the agrarian Confederacy. Pandemics aren’t quite th

April 1, 2020

[Eli Lake] Protecting civil rights in virus fight

Since the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic, some democracies around the world have used technology to avoid having to impose draconian mass quarantines that were common earlier this year in China. That’s reassuring -- and it’s also worrying, because the very strategies that can help fight a plague can also be abused once it’s over. Consider Taiwan, where an “electronic fence” allows local police to make regular phone calls to everyone who is home under quaranti

April 1, 2020

[Kim Seong-kon] Living as an Asian in West in uncomfortable times

Undoubtedly, these are uncomfortable times for all Asians living in the West. For the unprecedented global pandemic that has recently devastated the earth, many Westerners blame China. Yet, even if the virus originated in China, the Chinese people are not themselves to blame for the existence of the virus. Moreover, in the eyes of many Westerners, all Asians look alike, and therefore, any Asian on sight can be an object of hate and derision in Western countries. To make matters worse, Westerners

March 31, 2020

[Elisa Martinuzzi] Everybody’s trusting the bankers again

Measures to contain the spread of COVID-19 are upending every corner of economic life, bringing entire industries to a standstill across the world. What happens in the broader economy has a massive impact on the banks that oil its wheels; and financial regulators have -- rightly -- responded swiftly. The supervisors should ponder their next moves carefully, however. It is essential to soften the blow of companies and people not being able to repay their debts, as income evaporates. Lenders will

March 31, 2020