The Korea Herald

[Pritzker & Gutierrez] US Census not about citizenship

As former secretaries of commerce, with direct oversight of the US Census Bureau, we have grave concerns about the proposed addition of a citizenship question to the decennial census in 2020. If included, this question will put in jeopardy the accuracy of the data that the census collects, and increase costs. 　The census should not be a partisan issue. Mandated under the US constitution, the census requires the actual enumeration of all persons in the United States, not simply all citizens. In f

April 6, 2018

[Barry Ritholtz] Congress messed up post office

Before the news cycle gets consumed by the US-China trade war in the making, let’s go back to something I find much more intriguing: the US Postal Service. Specifically, is Amazon’s contract with the USPS kosher, or is it a sweetheart deal that amounts to a government giveaway?Let’s get one thing out of the way up front: President Donald Trump’s endless grousing about Amazon is nothing more than a thinly disguised complaint about the Washington Post, which has done a fine job reporting on his ad

April 6, 2018

[Barry Ritholtz] Congress messed up post office

[Park Sang-seek] Agenda items for the South-North Korea summit

President Moon said that the following subjects will be discussed at the summit meeting: denuclearization of the Korean peninsula; a permanent peace mechanism on the Korean peninsula; normalization of US-North Korea relations; further development of inter-Korean relations; and North Korea-US or South-North Korea-US economic cooperation. The denuclearization of North Korea should be the first agenda item because the other subjects are the means or incentives for the successful denuclearization of

April 5, 2018

[Park Sang-seek] Agenda items for the South-North Korea summit

[Andrew Polk] China’s financial opening isn’t quite what it seems

Although trade tensions between the US and China show no signs of abating, there are some reasons for cautious optimism. One is that the Americans have finally gotten around to giving the Chinese a concrete list of demands -- and, on at least one score, China is prepared to deal.The Chinese financial market has long been closed to foreign ownership, despite widespread criticism from the US and others. In November, following Donald Trump’s state visit to Beijing, China’s finance ministry announce

April 5, 2018

[Andrew Polk] China’s financial opening isn’t quite what it seems

[Tyler Cowen] Two American power centers are about to clash

Not long ago I attended an informal session in San Francisco on, basically, how to make the world a better place. Most of the attendees were from the Bay Area, and the technology industry. I was struck by how their approaches and perspectives differed from what I am used to, living in Northern Virginia, just outside of Washington.　Many participants announced visions of a better and very different future, such as letting top scientists operate without financial constraints. It was implied that we

April 5, 2018

[Gordon Brown] The new global youth movement

The recent March for Our Lives in the United States inspired millions not just across America, but also around the world. Until the nationwide demonstrations on March 24, most people thought that little new could be added to the conversation about the seemingly endless rounds of gun killings.Yet the brave and moving way in which, out of their anguish and pain, young people told the world that decisions on gun laws and safe schools are too important to be left to adults who had let them down has

April 5, 2018

[Jason Schenker] Trade tensions are already hitting industrial-metal prices

The prices of industrial metals, oil and other commodities have risen significantly since the Chinese manufacturing recession ended in June 2016. But many have fallen from their highs in January 2018, first in reaction to the risk of higher interest rates and now, more critically, because of trade tensions and the potential for global manufacturing and growth to be slower than expected.　The potential for slower growth due to US and reciprocal tariffs was highlighted by the International Monetary

April 5, 2018

[Michael A. Lindenberger] Last thing Trump needed was war-whisperer John Bolton in ear

John Bolton doesn’t officially start as the national security adviser until Tuesday, thank goodness. Already though, the appointment seems like a giant sign posted by the US to tell the rest of the world to go straight to hell.　In naming Bolton his next national security adviser, President Donald Trump comes closer than ever to delivering the presidency he promised on the day he took office under gray skies in a riot-tossed capital.　It’s a harrowing prospect. Trump is removing one after another

April 4, 2018

[Michael A. Lindenberger] Last thing Trump needed was war-whisperer John Bolton in ear

[Jeffrey D. Sachs] China’s bold energy vision

The boldest plan to achieve the targets set by the 2015 Paris climate agreement comes from China. The Paris accord commits the world’s governments to keeping global warming to well below 2 degrees Celsius relative to the preindustrial level. This can be accomplished mainly by shifting the world’s primary energy sources from carbon-based fossil fuels to zero-carbon, renewable (wind, solar, hydro, geothermal, ocean, biomass) and nuclear energy by the year 2050. China’s Global Energy Interconnectio

April 4, 2018

[Cass R. Sunstein] How to think about threat to America

For the first time since the 1940s, Americans have been asking: Can it happen here?　The question, which has been debated in the US for months, is meant to draw attention to the potential fragility of democratic self-government -- and to emphasize that in some periods, democracies are especially likely to turn in authoritarian directions.　It would be fair to pose that question in any case in light of China’s continued rise, Russia’s resurgent aggression and the disturbing developments in Turkey,

April 4, 2018

[Cass R. Sunstein] How to think about threat to America

[Baltimore Sun] Does Trump even understand DACA?

Over the weekend, President Donald Trump shared some thoughts on immigration that strongly suggest he either isn’t paying much attention to current events or he’s just trying to stir up his core supporters again in the face of congressional inaction and negative attention in the media. Either is a possibility; a combination of both is a probability. If he can denounce dark-skinned immigrants, the Mexican government and Democrats in one fell tweet, this is a president who is willing to put in the

April 4, 2018

[Jay Ambrose] Securing trade peace with China

Getting in a trade war with China or anyone else is economically suicidal, a way to disrupt everything and anything, and here is hope that what we are really seeing is the art of the deal. What you do is make egregious demands and then back down as the other side sees the hurt of obstinance and the benefit of concessions.　Maybe that’s what the Trump administration is really up to in its talk about $60 billion worth of tariffs on China, and there are signs of such a thing. China, in addition to s

April 4, 2018

[Virginia Postrel] Politics of ‘Roseanne’ are recognition and empathy

Before Wednesday evening, I’d never seen a single episode of “Roseanne.” But in the interest of cultural commentary, I cranked up my ABC.com app to see what all the fuss -- and the extraordinarily high ratings -- was about. Here’s what I learned.　1) It’s knowing. From the moment Dan Conner (John Goodman) wakes with a start, we’re in a familiar world rarely seen on TV. His face is covered by a plastic mask with a breathing tube. The show assumes the audience recognizes what it is: a CPAP (continu

April 3, 2018

[Kim Seong-kon] Lest we forget we were tadpoles once

Recently, while strolling through the National Mall in Washington, I stumbled into the Korean War Veterans Memorial. There I found statues of American soldiers who died during the Korea War. They were all wearing heavy winter military capes, indicating that they had to fight in the severely cold winter of the Korean Peninsula. On the plaque next to the statues was carved the number of those killed and wounded during the Korean War: 54,246 American soldiers and 628,833 UN soldiers were killed in

April 3, 2018

[Kim Seong-kon] Lest we forget we were tadpoles once

[Eli Lake] Don’t expect Trump’s new hawks to save the war in Syria

The conventional wisdom in Washington these days says that Secretary of Defense James Mattis is the one man who can save the nation from war. The new secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, is a hawk’s hawk. And don’t get the foreign policy establishment started on incoming national security adviser, John Bolton. President Donald Trump himself pines for military parades and asserts that torturing terrorists “works.”　Like most conventional wisdom in the Trump era, however, this is all wrong -- for a num

April 3, 2018

[Lee Jae-min] Our fine dust policy: still clueless while the blanket thickens

All of a sudden, last Friday felt different. Not because it was Friday. Something was obviously different: the air became finally breathable after a miserable week. The level of fine dust (or ultrafine dust) had been the talk of the town throughout the week at meetings and gatherings.A 2017 report from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development put South Korea’s fine dust level near the bottom of the countries surveyed, which in fact prompted President Moon to include this issue i

April 3, 2018

[Lee Jae-min] Our fine dust policy: still clueless while the blanket thickens

[Dahleen Glanton] If you are white, you were born privileged; that’s simply a fact

People are uncomfortable with the term “privileged.”　Several readers took offense recently when I differentiated between privileged youths and underprivileged youths in a column about the March for Our Lives.　“Categorizing and generalizing of this type are just veiled forms of discrimination and/or racism,” one man wrote.　I’d like to take this opportunity to set the record straight.　If you are a white person in America, you were born privileged. That’s just a fact.　It’s nothing to be ashamed of.

April 3, 2018

[Hal Brands] Only the US can sustain the peace in Taiwan

Recent weeks have seen significant developments in the awkward three-way relationship between Taiwan, China and the US. First, President Donald Trump signed the Taiwan Travel Act, which made it American policy to encourage greater high-level contacts — including defense and national security ones — with Taiwan, despite the displeasure those contacts will surely incur from China. Second, Taiwan’s spy chief warned that a more empowered and assertive Chinese government, under the leadership of Pres

April 2, 2018

[Hal Brands] Only the US can sustain the peace in Taiwan

[Mihir Sharma] Is India ready to take on China?

As the People’s Republic of China continues its rise, Asia and the world are scrambling to keep their balance. Among China’s neighbors and rivals, few countries seem willing or ready to counter the challenge it poses. Japan is struggling with decades of diffidence internationally and the strictures of its postwar constitution. The countries of Southeast Asia are divided among themselves about the virtues of growing closer to China, while Australia is split internally over the same question. Euro

April 2, 2018

[Mihir Sharma] Is India ready to take on China?

[Keenan Fagan] Denuclearization, or a rational dictator with nukes?

Without North Korea’s credible threats to destroy American cities, there would likely be no current crisis on the Korean Peninsula. North Korea could have continued to quietly build its nuclear arsenal and missile technology, as it had for decades. South Korea would have accepted their bad brother, who it considered full of bluster but harmless, per Presidents Roh Moo-hyun, Kim Dae-jung, and the narrative on the street. China, the perfect enabler, would have continued to look the other way, happ

April 2, 2018