The Korea Herald

[Alex Webb] Soccer fans, your team is coming after you

It’s easy to think of sports teams as massive companies: They have huge global exposure, millions of fans, and athletes on eye-popping salaries.　In reality, though, even the biggest teams are little more than minnows. The world’s wealthiest soccer team, Manchester United, has a market value of just $4.1 billion -- less than, say, Fevertree Drinks, a maker of tonic water and mixers with just 51 employees.　While the biggest teams have millions, if not hundreds of millions, of fans, they have histo

Sept. 5, 2018

[Satyajit Das] We may be facing textbook emerging market crisis

Emerging-market stresses have been building since at least 2013. Investors may have forgotten the effect of the “taper tantrum” on the “Fragile Five” -- Brazil, India, Indonesia, Turkey and South Africa -- a term coined by Morgan Stanley to describe their vulnerability to capital outflows. Monetary accommodation, lower current-account deficits and growth disguised the underlying challenges, attracting more capital to those markets.　The textbook recipe for an emerging-market crisis requires a lar

Sept. 5, 2018

[David Ignatius] To get back in Syria game, US must prevent Idlib bloodbath

As the Syrian tragedy lurches toward a bloody final showdown in Idlib province, the Trump administration is struggling to check Russia and the Syrian regime from an assault there that UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warns would be a “humanitarian catastrophe.” The administration’s efforts are so late in coming, and so limited, that it’s hard to muster much hope they can reverse seven years of American failure. But at least the administration has stopped the dithering and indecision of the

Sept. 5, 2018

[David Ignatius] To get back in Syria game, US must prevent Idlib bloodbath

[Mac Margolis] Argentina’s Macri scores economic own goal

From debt vultures and cooked books to fiscal time bombs, Argentine President Mauricio Macri inherited quite the mess. In his three years of office, he has handled most of these challenges remarkably well, drawing cheers from investors and his compatriots. Here was a decisive, business-friendly manager, talking transparency and free market initiatives to end what might have been “the largest populist experiment” in the world, in the words of Oxford Economics analyst Guillermo Tolosa.　Now the muc

Sept. 5, 2018

[Kim Seong-kon] Riding the Seoul-Washington Express

Although Richard Brautigan tragically took his own life in 1984, before he died he left us some legendary literary classics such as “Trout Fishing in America.” This novel in particular has greatly influenced many other prominent writers, such as the celebrated Japanese novelist Haruki Murakami. By the 1990s, Brautigan’s legacy was so strong that, in 1994, a young man named Peter Eastman actually changed his name to “Trout Fishing in America” and a young couple named their baby after the novel. F

Sept. 4, 2018

[Kim Seong-kon] Riding the Seoul-Washington Express

[Noah Smith] Why the US economy is having a boom

There’s no doubt that the US economy is in a boom. The Conference Board is reporting the highest levels of job satisfaction in more than a decade. This is probably because of a tight labor market -- the ratio between the unemployment level and the number of job vacancies is at its lowest level in a half-century.　A broader measure, the prime-age employment-to-population ratio, is back to 2006 levels. Meanwhile, real gross domestic product growth for the second quarter was just revised up to 4.2 p

Sept. 4, 2018

[Sandrine Devillard, Anu Madgavkar] A woman’s place is in the digital revolution

Digital technologies are a double-edged sword for the world’s women. Men’s greater access to these technologies puts women at risk of being left even further behind economically and socially. But if women can tap the full power of digital technologies, vital new opportunities will open up for them.According to estimates by the GSM Association, women’s access to the internet and mobile phones is about 85 percent of the level for men, on average, and a total of 1.7 billion women in low- and middle

Sept. 4, 2018

[Lee Jae-min] Striking a balance between data and privacy: A second try

Global trading norms have traditionally adopted a bifurcated approach: goods trade and services trade. These still constitute the two main pillars of trade agreements. Now, a fundamental change is in the offing. The arrival of artificial intelligence and the internet of things is now blurring the conventional line between goods and services. The two are now often combined, converged and integrated in one medium or product. Goods provide services, and services in turn put more goods for sale. Con

Sept. 4, 2018

[Lee Jae-min] Striking a balance between data and privacy: A second try

[John M. Eger] The new normal in education includes art, science

Well into the 1990s and certainly by 2000, any business that did not have the worldwide web or “dot-com” in its name was toast. We may have spent at least $2 trillion over three years to launch what is the internet of today. But this was only the beginning.　Outsourcing and offshoring soon followed. It’s cheaper, no question about it. We’ve seen a reduction in the cost of telecommunications; we’ve also seen a reduction in the cost of transportation. It doesn’t make sense to produce something your

Sept. 4, 2018

[Eli Lake] Iran’s fake news is a fake threat

As if the free world didn’t have enough to worry about with Russian fake news, now the world leader in state-sponsored terrorism is getting into the act: Iran is running a disinformation campaign on social media, and it is bigger than previously believed.　A closer look at this propaganda, however, reveals a paper tiger. Iran’s network of Twitter handles, websites and Facebook fakes are amateurish and clumsy. Anyone foolish enough to trust information from something called the “Liberty Front Pres

Sept. 3, 2018

[Eli Lake] Iran’s fake news is a fake threat

[Joseph E. Stiglitz] The myth of secular stagnation

In the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis, some economists argued that the United States, and perhaps the global economy, was suffering from “secular stagnation,” an idea first conceived in the aftermath of the Great Depression. Economies had always recovered from downturns. But the Great Depression had lasted an unprecedented length of time. Many believed that the economy recovered only because of government spending on World War II, and many feared that with the end of the war, the economy

Sept. 3, 2018

[Joseph E. Stiglitz] The myth of secular stagnation

[Mac Margolis] Latin America’s left needs better heroes

For a man behind bars, former Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has been on a tear. In recent weeks, his followers have taken to the streets in his name. Foreign celebrities and world leaders including a Nobel Peace Prize laureate have sung his praises. Even Pope Francis reportedly sent him blessings. No other candidate comes close in the polls for the Oct. 7 presidential elections.　That’s not half bad for the political leader whom two Brazilian courts found guilty of graft and money

Sept. 3, 2018

[Mitchell Schnurman] Best thing about Trump’s trade deal: ‘We didn’t blow it all up’

Maybe President Donald Trump has learned a better way to make deals in Washington: Negotiate instead of walking away.　Or maybe opponents have figured out how to sway the president: Present a strong united front with business and political leaders from across the spectrum.　On Aug. 27, Trump and officials from Mexico announced a breakthrough in trade talks that paves the way to refresh the North American Free Trade Agreement.　Many details are unclear and the process still faces a public review and

Sept. 3, 2018

[Nathaniel Bullard] Electric vehicles’ day will come, and it might come suddenly

Last week, California’s state legislature approved a bill requiring the state to get 100 percent of its electricity from carbon-free sources by 2045. It’s a landmark for power sector decarbonization, and if Gov. Jerry Brown signs the bill, it will require a transformation of the state’s energy system.　California already gets 29 percent of its electricity from zero-carbon wind, solar, biomass and geothermal energy, and it has already reduced statewide greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels. As I

Sept. 3, 2018

[Ann McFeatters] Trump’s deep, troubling Russian ties

No collusion?! Is he kidding?!　Inquiring minds want to know why Donald Trump is threatening to take away the security clearance of Bruce Ohr, the government’s foremost expert on the Russian mob.Trump’s personal lawyer for more than a decade, Michael Cohen, said Trump conspired with him on felonies to pay bribes to a porn star and a Playmate model not to talk about the alleged affairs they had with Trump while he was married. Cohen is going to prison for his role in the crime, which he said was a

Sept. 2, 2018

[Ann McFeatters] Trump’s deep, troubling Russian ties

[Park Sang-seek] Authoritarianism is No.1 illness in Korean society

I have received university education in both Korea and the US, majoring in English literature in Korea and political science in the US. Perhaps because of this, the differences between Western and Oriental civilizations have become my main academic interest. In most East Asian countries authoritarianism is one of the most distinguished traits of their cultures. This is particularly true of Korea. After liberation from Japanese colonialism in 1945, Korea was divided into two -- South and North Ko

Sept. 2, 2018

[Park Sang-seek] Authoritarianism is No.1 illness in Korean society

[James Stavridis] Taiwan is not bargaining chip with China

I first visited Taiwan in the 1970s as a young officer serving in an American destroyer assigned to the Pacific Fleet. A small, dynamic nation at the northern edge of the strategically crucial South China Sea, the Republic of China (as Taiwan prefers to be known) was locked in a Cold War duel of geopolitics with its vastly larger cousin across the Taiwan Strait, the People’s Republic of China.　I returned to Taiwan last week for meetings with senior officials -- President Tsai Ing-wen, Foreign Mi

Sept. 2, 2018

[Noah Smith] Imagine if shareholders didn’ come first

US Sen. Elizabeth Warren has proposed a bill -- the Accountable Capitalism Act -- that would require large companies to create corporate charters that take account of the interests of workers, customers and communities in addition to shareholders. To enforce this dictum, it would give each company’s employees the power to elect 40 percent of the corporate directors.　Right now, US corporations are set up to maximize the value of their shareholders. According to classic free-market theory, this wi

Sept. 2, 2018

[Christopher Balding] How US-Mexico pact could turn tables on China

When President Donald Trump announced a trade pact with Mexico to replace the North American Free Trade Agreement, attention immediately turned to Canada. But it’s in China -- which wasn’t mentioned -- that the greatest impact could be felt.　In abandoning Nafta, the US appears to be moving toward a single trade bloc that might also embrace Canada. The Mexico accord tightens rules of origin on automobiles, so that 40 percent to 45 percent of their content must be made by domestic companies whose

Sept. 2, 2018

[David Ignatius] The real importance of Trump’s Mexico move

The best thing that can be said about President Donald Trump’s latest trade initiative is that it moves the US back toward the kind of agreements Trump unwisely blew up when he became president. So, two cheers for Trump’s revamped free trade agreement with Mexico, announced Monday, and the one he may get soon with Canada. He wants to rebrand the package, of course, so that it’s not called NAFTA (“bad connotations!”). But the preliminary update includes labor and environmental standards somewhat

Aug. 30, 2018

[David Ignatius] The real importance of Trump’s Mexico move