The Korea Herald

[Jerry Haar] US immigration reform necessary for national security

Is there merit in President Donald Trump’s call for a merit-based immigration system for the United States?Take two cases.Rosa Gonzalez, a housekeeper from Honduras and a US citizen, seeks to sponsor her aunt Mercedes Silva to immigrate to the US. A resident of Yuscatan (population 2,400), Ms. Silva is 80 years old, blind and severely diabetic. She is cared for by a younger sister and niece.Sergei Schevchenko is a 33-year scientist from Ukraine with double doctorates from American universities i

Jan. 3, 2018

[Scott Martelle] It’s cold. For Trump, that’s evidence against global warming

This could become President Donald Trump’s Sen. Jim Inhofe moment, in which a dramatic flourish to make a political point instead just displays an astounding mix of arrogance and ignorance.So what did Trump do this time (how’s that for an evergreen question)?It’s cold in most of the country. Of course, it’s also winter, and they go hand in hand in most of the US. As does snowfall. Inhofe, an Oklahoma Republican, famously carried a snowball made of fresh-fallen snow on Capitol Hill to the Senate

Jan. 3, 2018

[Kim Seong-kon] Rise and shine in the Year of the Dog

According to the Chinese zodiac, 2018 is the year of the dog. It is believed that those who are born in the year of the dog are independent, faithful, and loyal. Dogs are man’s best friend who can understand the human mind better than any other animal. Indeed, there are many stories of a loyal dog saving his master’s life at the cost of his own. No other domestic animal would or could do it. Perhaps that is why Koreans, who value loyalty, prefer dogs to cats. This sign has its downsides too. The

Jan. 2, 2018

[Kim Seong-kon] Rise and shine in the Year of the Dog

[Robert J. Fouser] Building on Moon Jae-in’s good first year

South Korea did well in 2017. The year began with insecurity over the impeachment of then-president Park Geun-hye. Her removal from office in March caused a short, but intense, election campaign that resulted in an overwhelming victory for Moon Jae-in in May. The spring saw rapidly rising tensions between the US and North Korea over the North’s nuclear weapons program. In the past, a political vacuum and war worries would have had a strong impact on the South Korean economy, but economic growth

Jan. 2, 2018

[Robert J. Fouser] Building on Moon Jae-in’s good first year

[Elizabeth Drew] A Trump New Year

As US President Donald Trump decamped to his mansion-cum-private club in Palm Beach, Florida, for the holidays, he left Washington, DC, on edge. It’s obvious that Trump and his strong allies in Congress are determined to torpedo what’s supposed to be an independent legal inquiry into whether Trump and his campaign colluded with Russia in its efforts to defeat Hillary Clinton in 2016.The Trump camp’s behavior toward Special Counsel Robert Mueller and the FBI makes Richard Nixon and his aides’ beh

Jan. 2, 2018

[Daniel Moss] The great trade war that didn’t happen in 2017

The trade war didn’t happen. Prepare for a few skirmishes.It was high on many observers’ lists of things that could go badly wrong in 2017. Buying and selling of goods and services across borders not only increased last year, but also grew more than anticipated. This year may test whether that’s a durable trend or just an accident that flew in the face of politics. Part of the thanks goes to a more vigorous global economic expansion. The resilience of the international system should also get its

Jan. 2, 2018

[Noah Smith] Monopolies may be worse for workers than for consumers

Monopoly power is a hot topic of economic debate. Economists are starting to ask whether increasing industrial concentration is choking off productivity growth, reducing capital investment, throttling or deterring would-be entrepreneurs, raising consumer prices, and reducing the share of national income flowing to workers.This is a good and important effort. But it’s also possible that with all the attention being paid to concentration at the industry level, there hasn’t been enough focus on the

Jan. 2, 2018

[David Ignatius] Trump’s divisiveness puts America at risk

Looking for perspective on the past year and the new one, I turned to several of the nation’s most experienced former military commanders. One of them put it bluntly: America is so divided politically at home that we are becoming vulnerable to our adversaries abroad.America, these retired military leaders fear, is so divided right now that it might be difficult to mobilize the country for war, if that were necessary. The nation survives amid division and dysfunction now, when we’re at peace, mor

Jan. 1, 2018

[David Ignatius] Trump’s divisiveness puts America at risk

[Noah Feldman] Tillerson won’t admit: The US has no leverage

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson may think his year-end summary of US foreign policy is a tale of success. But the remarkable op-ed article in the New York Times in fact illustrates the opposite: It shows in chapter and verse how the US lacks leverage over many of the critical challenges it faces globally. From North Korea to China to Russia and the Middle East, American objectives are clear -- and the Donald Trump administration has no credible road map to achieve them.Start with North Korea. T

Jan. 1, 2018

[Noah Feldman] Tillerson won’t admit: The US has no leverage

[Andres Oppenheimer] Latin America poised to make big news in 2018

An old joke among foreign correspondents in Latin America says that Americans will do almost everything for Latin America -- except read or watch news about it. But that may not hold true in 2018: It’s going to be a year in which the region will make big headlines worldwide.Here are six major reasons why:First, in 2018 there will be presidential elections in Mexico and Brazil, the two biggest countries in the region, as well as in Colombia, Venezuela, Paraguay and Costa Rica. That means that nea

Jan. 1, 2018

[Nathaniel Bullard & Adam Minter] The upside to America’s gadget infatuation

Americans have never been more addicted to devices. Thanks to the mobile revolution initiated by the iPhone, the US alone is home to 238 million mobile phones and 140 million tablets that are rarely shut down. And their numbers are growing, thanks to a perpetual upgrade cycle and demand for new features. For environmentalists, it’s a looming electronic nightmare in which America’s gadget obsession consumes increasingly higher volumes of the world’s limited resources.Thankfully, the data shows th

Jan. 1, 2018

[Leona Allen] Women, speak up when you deserve more money

So, you’re a woman rocking along in a job you love. Your bosses seem more than pleased with your hard work. You feel appreciated for the most part.That is, until the moment you discover that your male colleague sitting right next to you in a similar position with similar years of experience is paid far more than you are.Talk about a slap in the face.That’s what reportedly happened last week to “E!News” host Catt Sadler, who after 12 years at the network said she learned that co-host Jason Kenned

Jan. 1, 2018

[Adam Minter] Chinese populism lives in a video app

Yang Yang, a 22-year-old Chinese corn farmer, spends two to three hours per day streaming video of life in his cliffside village to smartphones across China. He spends lots of time clinging to a cliffside ladder, one hand on his selfie stick, while he banters with fans about village life.It’s hardly riveting television, but in China it has an audience: In just two months, Yang has managed to earn more than 1 million views and 45,000 regular followers on Kuaishou, an online video app favored by t

Dec. 29, 2017

[Carl P. Leubsdorf] Predictions for a wild and wacky 2018

After a unique 2017, can the denizens of the DC swamp outdo themselves in 2018? Let’s look ahead with my annual not-totally-serious forecast:January: With job approval at 38, President Donald Trump announces White House shake-up, naming Gen. John Kelly chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff and, with Middle East negotiations moribund, son-in-law Jared Kushner as chief of staff. Former Minnesota Sen. Al Franken rejoins cast of “Saturday Night Live.” In State of the Union speech, Trump hails “most succ

Dec. 29, 2017

[Carl P. Leubsdorf] Predictions for a wild and wacky 2018

[David Ignatius] Study reveals small but powerful Iran cyber threat

When it comes to cyberweapons, America is an elephant and Iran is a flea. Still, a flea can be a persistent nuisance, especially for the unprotected.Iran‘s cyber capability is the focus of a detailed new study called “Iran’s Cyber Threat,” to be published soon by Collin Anderson and Karim Sadjadpour of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. It describes a country that, although “third tier” on the cyberthreat matrix, can still do considerable damage.The disclosures about Iran‘s cyberatt

Dec. 28, 2017

[David Ignatius] Study reveals small but powerful Iran cyber threat

[Noah Smith] A road map for reviving the Midwest

John Austin is a man with a mission: to revive the Rust Belt. The former president of the Michigan State Board of Education, he is also a researcher at the Brookings Institution and has been the director of multiple nonprofit organizations and government commissions. In 2006 he produced a plan for Rust Belt regional revitalization. Now, in a series of blog posts for Brookings, Austin has been evaluating which local development strategies have worked, and which have failed.　Austin believes that t

Dec. 28, 2017

[Thomas Curwen] 2017 started ? and ended ? with Americans in streets

Physicists have long understood that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. What is true in the natural world is also true in human society. Little wonder then that in 2017, democracy found its voice in the streets.　Protesters marched, quarterbacks took a knee, scientists exclaimed and millions of Americans stood in awe of a darkening that came across the sky. Man buns and vagina hats were in vogue, superheroes were box office hits and real-life heroes were found in the midst

Dec. 27, 2017

[Thomas Curwen] 2017 started ? and ended ? with Americans in streets

[Los Angeles Times] Talking about climate change in Orwellian doublespeak doesn’t make it go away

If President Donald Trump were a reader of books, we’d recommend a nearly 70-year-old novel to him, because it illustrates nicely both the absurdity and danger of perverting language for political ends. The book is George Orwell’s “1984,” which gave us the concept of “Newspeak,” a language invented by government, and of ministries that do the exact opposite of what their names imply, i.e., a Ministry of Peace that is in charge of waging permanent war, and a Ministry of Truth churning out lies.　T

Dec. 27, 2017

[Kim Kyung-ho] Korea near elusive income target

It seems almost certain that South Korea will see its gross national income per capita surpass $30,000 for the first time next year.The government’s economic policy directions for the coming year, unveiled Wednesday, forecast the country’s per capita GNI will reach $32,000 in 2018, up from an estimated $29,700 this year.This prediction is based on the assumption that Asia’s fourth-largest economy will grow about 3 percent next year, with the won-dollar exchange rate continuing to hover slightly

Dec. 27, 2017

[Kim Kyung-ho] Korea near elusive income target

[Mac Margolis] President’s narrow survival is good news for Peru

Given the notoriously glacial pace of Latin American justice, Peruvian President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski’s fall from grace and, almost, from power was dizzying. Barely a week after being accused of lying about taking money from a tainted contractor, he was hauled before congress and narrowly escaped impeachment late Thursday -- an inquisitorial zeal that might make the old school generalissimos look slack.　Kuczynski’s survival is good news for Peru, which thanks to its sensible policies and market

Dec. 27, 2017