The Korea Herald

[Leonid Bershidsky] Putin’s anti-Trump support group fails to jell

On Friday, President Vladimir Putin assembled the most impressive panel ever seen at the St. Petersburg Economic Forum, which he’s used as a showcase for Russia and himself since 2006. He had a nonattendee to thank for the full house, Donald Trump.　Usually, one or two foreign leaders attend the forum to act as foils for Putin, who delivers a keynote address, pitching Russia as an investment destination. This year, however, Putin shared the stage with President Emmanuel Macron of France, Prime Mi

May 28, 2018

[Leonid Bershidsky] Putin’s anti-Trump support group fails to jell

[Jeffrey Frankel] An economic platform for US Democrats

When American voters head to the polls for congressional midterm elections in November, their choices seem likely to be guided more by “pocketbook issues” than by foreign affairs or President Donald Trump’s scandals. If the Democrats hope to retake control of the House of Representatives, they will need a platform that addresses voters’ economic concerns -- particularly the concerns of many voters who elected Trump in the first place.The conventional wisdom still stands: underlying Trump’s elect

May 28, 2018

[Benjamin Reiss] Sleeping in public is taboo -- unless you’re young, white and privileged

When Yale graduate student Lolade Siyonbola dozed off in a common room of her dormitory during a late-night paper-writing session, she had no idea what her nap would lead to. Another student, perhaps assuming that Siyonbola was an intruder or disturbed at the sight of a black person sleeping in plain view (or both), turned on the lights and told her, “You’re not supposed to be sleeping here. I’m going to call the police.” When the police came, they subjected Siyonbola to an excruciating 17-minut

May 28, 2018

[Sławomir Sierakowski] Will defunding Hungary and Poland backfire?

Discussions surrounding the European Union’s 2021-2027 budget are intensifying, owing to many European policymakers’ insistence that regional development funds be disbursed only to member states that are in compliance with EU rules. Under the Copenhagen Criteria, all member states are required to uphold the institutions of liberal democracy, the rule of law, respect for human rights, and protections for minorities.The proposal to attach new conditions to EU funding is directed at the populist go

May 28, 2018

[Ramesh Ponnuru] Trump should declare victory on China and retreat

In any “trade war,” the most important thing to remember is the limit of the martial metaphor. When a foreign company sells Americans something they choose to buy, it is not an act of aggression. Trade negotiations aren’t a zero-sum game in which one country wins and the other has to lose.　 The point is being forgotten right now, and not just by protectionists. Practically everyone is saying that President Donald Trump is losing, surrendering, caving or capitulating to China. But “losing” may be

May 27, 2018

[Ramesh Ponnuru] Trump should declare victory on China and retreat

[Faye Flam] How scientists succumb to corruption and cook results

Horrible bosses can cause misery in any kind of business, but in science, they wield uniquely destructive power. In a recent survey compiled by the journal Nature, a number of young scientists reported that they felt pressured to find “particular results” that would presumably please their bosses, as opposed to the truth. That’s a problem for society at large, since it degrades the integrity of research that we’re supporting.　 Last week, a number of experts weighted in for a special section of t

May 27, 2018

[Tobin Harshaw] China outspends US on defense? Here’s the math.

When is $227 billion greater than $606 billion? When comparing Chinese defense spending to that of the US -- and if Army Chief of Staff Mark Milley is the one doing the math.　At a hearing last week, the ranking Democrat of the Senate’s defense appropriations subcommittee, Dick Durbin of Illinois, said to Milley: “You tell us that one of our biggest threats, greatest enemies, is Russia; turns out we read recently that Russia spends about $80 billion a year on its military. So let me get this stra

May 27, 2018

[Tobin Harshaw] China outspends US on defense? Here’s the math.

[Adam Minter] Fake news laws are fake solution

In the waning days of Malaysia’s recent election campaign, then-opposition leader Mahathir Mohamad was investigated under the country’s anti-fake news law. Had he been charged and convicted, he could have spent as much as six years in prison. Instead, Mahathir was elected prime minister with a pledge to repeal the law.　 After his unexpected success, Mahathir initially seemed to back off his promise; other members of his government have since sent different signals. While Malaysians have many rea

May 27, 2018

[Barry Ritholtz] Never mind the millionaires. Here’s advice from billionaires.

Last month, I described an email that promised vast riches if I would adopt “The Millionaire Mindset.”　This is the sort of silly wishful thinking I hate:　Consider, instead, the Cartesian pitch as applied to self-help being sold today: Just think it and it will happen. This stuff, along with crystals and horoscopes, joins a long list of things that have never been proven to have much value beyond a placebo effect.　Wishful thinking alone is insufficient to get any job done. “All you need is a doll

May 27, 2018

[Eli Lake] Trump can win by walking away from Korea talks

President Donald Trump finally did it. On Thursday he pulled the plug on next month’s big summit with North Korea’s leader Kim Jong-un. In sadness, but not anger, Trump said Kim’s insults were too much for now. That said, he left the door open for a future meeting. Why did Kim get cold feet and resume that anti-US rhetoric?North Korean apparatus tell us that their dear leader is skittish about negotiations after Trump’s national security adviser, John Bolton, suggested the “Libya model” for ridd

May 25, 2018

[Eli Lake] Trump can win by walking away from Korea talks

[Anjani Trivedi] Trump’s auto misfire will do nothing for Detroit

The latest salvo in President Donald Trump’s trade war promises to do more damage than good to an already anxious American auto industry.　Trump on Wednesday ordered the US Commerce Department to probe whether auto imports threaten national security under Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act -- the same executive power he used to apply tariffs on steel and aluminum earlier this year.　The president’s latest idea risks unwinding a global supply chain that powers sales of almost 20 million cars a

May 25, 2018

[Noah Smith] China couldn’t keep growing like mad forever

China, not the US, is the world’s largest economy. Though the US is still tops when measured at market-exchange rates, China is about 20 percent larger after adjusting for the lower cost of goods and services there. The latter metric is what really counts, both in terms of standards of living and, probably, in terms of military purchasing power.　With four times as many people as the US, it makes sense that China would eventually have a larger economy; it’s unlikely that any industrialized countr

May 24, 2018

[Noah Smith] China couldn’t keep growing like mad forever

[Clive Crook] Europe’s Italian problem is bigger than Brexit

The new government finally taking shape in Italy is one of the weirdest coalitions you could imagine -- and a pretty effective combination if your aim was to sabotage the European Union. Although predictions about where this Italian misadventure is heading are difficult, it could easily be worse than Brexit for the EU.　 The coalition partners -- the left-populist Five Star Movement led by Luigi Di Maio and the right-populist League led by Matteo Salvini -- are poles apart in most respects, but c

May 24, 2018

[Clive Crook] Europe’s Italian problem is bigger than Brexit

[Justin Fox] Ending China’s birth limits won’t bring a baby boom

It looks like China’s decadesold policy of limiting births is finally going to bite the dust. As Bloomberg News reports from Beijing:　 China is planning to scrap all limits on the number of children a family can have, according to people familiar with the matter, in what would be a historic end to a policy that spurred countless human-rights abuses and left the world’s second-largest economy short of workers.　It would in fact be a historic move. Will it have much of an impact on China’s birth ra

May 24, 2018

[Cass Sunstein] The destructive cycle of hating

There has been a great deal of discussion of social division and polarization in recent times, but those terms are inadequate. What besets the United States is much worse.　Both the right and the left are increasingly defined by a form of Manichaeism, in which the forces of light are taken to be in a death struggle with the forces of darkness. We are in a Manichaean moment.　Manichaeism was a religion founded in the third century by the prophet Mani, born in what is now Iraq. Seeking to synthesize

May 24, 2018

[David Ignatius] In Russia probe, fringe characters take center stage

In the bizarre double helix that is the Russia investigation, one of the recurring themes is the role of would-be influencers. They start off as connectors and facilitators, but gradually (and implausibly) they move to the center of the story. That’s true with Stefan Halper, the retired American professor at Britain’s Cambridge University who has become the object of President Trump’s counter-witch hunt to expose a supposed FBI mole who infiltrated his campaign. The FBI is guarding Halper’s iden

May 24, 2018

[Kim Kyung-ho] Moon lost on path to growth

In view of his publicized remarks, there seems to be no reason to doubt President Moon Jae-in’s will to push for innovation-driven growth by lifting regulations.On several occasions in the past months, Moon has called for drastic regulatory reforms, describing them as a foundation for innovation-led growth.Regrettably, his professed will has not led his administration to take substantive action.Moon expressed his discontent with what has been done so far in a meeting held last week to check the

May 23, 2018

[Kim Kyung-ho] Moon lost on path to growth

[Kim Myong-sik] Behind Kim Jong-un’s superb acting skills

Capricious, audacious, shrewd and merciless, yet enigmatic. These words are how South Koreans have branded North Korea’s supreme leaders over the seven-decade history of conflicts on the peninsula. The third and present ruler Kim Jong-un adds one remarkable feature, his superb acting skills.　Of late, our extremely competitive TV channels gave the North Korean leadership almost as much exposure as the president of the Republic of Korea, both in frequency and air time. Therefore, we could closely

May 23, 2018

[Kim Myong-sik] Behind Kim Jong-un’s superb acting skills

[Cathy O’Neil] Let’s not forget how wrong our crime data are

Legalizing marijuana makes sense for a lot of reasons, but there’s one valuable thing we’ll lose when police stop arresting people for smoking pot: A sense of just how misleading our crime data are.　Data on arrests and reported crime play a big role in public policy and law enforcement. Politicians employ them to gauge their success in making neighborhoods and the entire country safe. Police departments use them to determine where to deploy more officers to look for more crime. They are fed into

May 23, 2018

[Nina Teicholz] Calories on menus won’t slim down America

Counting calories is now the law of the land. This month, a long-delayed regulation came into effect requiring all food chains with 20 or more locations to list calorie information on their menus. Nutritionists fought to include the rule in the Affordable Care Act as a means of fighting obesity. But it turns out the regulation is based on weak science.Until now, only a handful of cities mandated calorie counts in restaurants. In New York City, which pioneered the policy in 2008, menu labeling ha

May 23, 2018