The Korea Herald

[Doyle McManus] Trump wants to take on Iran but has no idea how to do that

Last week, US-backed forces in Syria expelled the Islamic State extremist group from its self-proclaimed capital of Raqqa, a major victory after three years of fighting against the “caliphate” that once terrified much of the West. But there was strikingly little celebration. President Trump made no formal announcement of success. There was no banner declaring “Mission Accomplished.”That was partly because the struggle against IS is no longer the main event. The Trump administration has already d

Oct. 25, 2017

[Leonid Bershidsky] Why Germany is better at resisting fake news

Modern-day elections are increasingly defined by two sides: those who trust traditional media and those who rely on the social networks to provide an alternative, which is far more likely to deliver fake news. While in the US, the nature of the conflict is clouded by the social media‘s prevalence, Germany is an example of a society where the battle lines are clearly drawn.Multiple studies in the US have shown that Democrats trust traditional media more than Republicans do, which makes sense. But

Oct. 25, 2017

[Tyler Cowen] New populism isn’t about economics

Economic theories of populism are dead, we Americans just don’t know it yet. Over the past week, two countries have brought populists to power, but in both cases those places have been enjoying decent economic growth.　Andrej Babis’s party dominated the Czech national election Saturday, and he is almost certain to become the next prime minister. Babis has been described as “the anti-establishment businessman pledging to fight political corruption while facing fraud charges himself” -- sound famil

Oct. 25, 2017

[Lee Joo-hee] ‘I consume therefore I am’

Earlier this month, I did the unthinkable. I went from being an owner of a smartphone with a 5.5-inch screen with a resolution of 1300 pixels and 3 gigabytes of RAM, to a user of a flip phone with a 3.8-inch display with resolution of 800 pixels and 2 GB of RAM.While my previous phone could take notes and basic voice commands, split the screen for multitasking and make my face Instagram-ready with its own filters, my new phone can make calls and offers a button key to a basic version of KakaoTal

Oct. 25, 2017

[Lee Joo-hee] ‘I consume therefore I am’

[Robert J. Fouser] The “Candlelight Revolution” One Year Later

The end of October brings the first anniversary of the beginning of the “Candlelight Revolution” that led to the impeachment and removal of former president Park Geun-hye. The anniversary provides an opportunity to assess the events from the perspective of time. In looking back, three keywords come to mind: competence, accountability, and stability.　Park Geun-hye was not the most unpopular president when the protests began. She was the only president to be elected with more than 50 percent of th

Oct. 24, 2017

[Baltimore Sun] Trump travel ban: Third time is still no charm

No matter how many times President Donald Trump tries to re-write his ban on travel to the United States for citizens of certain nations, he can’t change the effort’s origin: his campaign pledge to keep Muslims out of the United States. He can claim it is the product of a security review. He can add a nation that sends practically no one to the US in the first place or bar a handful of people from another. But religious discrimination remains at its root.This week a federal judge in Hawaii said

Oct. 24, 2017

[Kim Seong-kon] In Search of Lost G and D

The hero of Kim Kyung Hyun’s novel, “In Search of Lost G,” is a bewildered Korean American named Kyung Hoon who wants to restore his original name, a symbol of his original identity that he has lost since his arrival in America as an immigrant. On his first day at school in the States, Kyung was instructed to write his name on the board to introduce himself to his classmates. Unfortunately, however, he was so nervous that he was not able to finish writing down his full name before the class ende

Oct. 24, 2017

[Kim Seong-kon] In Search of Lost G and D

[Mohamed A. El-Erian] China won’t have a typical ’Minsky Moment’

Zhou Xiaochuan, the long-serving and respected governor of the People’s Bank of China, raised eyebrows last week when he cautioned that the country could have a “Minsky Moment” if “we are too optimistic when things go smoothly.”　Although he was right to warn against policy complacency and general economic overconfidence, particularly in the context of a growth model that still relies too heavily on credit and debt, the Minsky threat of a financial crisis per se is lower than the risk of generali

Oct. 24, 2017

[Ann Friedman] How men can help after Weinstein

It’s been more than two weeks since the “open secret” about Harvey Weinstein landed in the New York Times and then the New Yorker and then just about every media outlet in the country. Two exhausting weeks for women.We’ve been publicly sharing our experiences of harassment or assault — some of us for the first time — using the #MeToo hashtag. Privately, we’ve been communicating with other women in our industries, comparing names of men to watch out for. We’ve been having nightmares, wincing as w

Oct. 24, 2017

[Letter to editor] Where’s our humanities? Literature in university language programs

In the 21st century the place of literature in university language programs is a dubious one. Its usefulness is questioned, even among the well-educated, and even among language professors themselves. For in the digital age the prevalent notion seems to be: If it’s not quantifiable, it’s not worth a damn.　I disagree with this current assumption. All knowledge is not reducible to mathematical data, or the scrutiny of scientific inquiry, or its direct value to the corporate/technological/political

Oct. 24, 2017

[Leonid Bershidsky] Trump falls on ceremony. He should stop trying.

Whatever Americans think of how President Donald Trump is handling the policymaking part of his job, for a showman, he’s unquestionably making a hash of the ceremonial aspects of the job. But maybe, in the media age, expectations have become unfair too; in much of the rest of the world, unlike in the US, those running the government share responsibility for symbolism.Trump is consistently late to react to tragedies and painfully clumsy when finally speaking about them. Trump’s reaction to the Ch

Oct. 23, 2017

[Leonid Bershidsky] Trump falls on ceremony. He should stop trying.

[Christine Flowers] #metoo and women’s sympathy bandwagon

I was five years out of law school when Professor Anita Hill put on a sky-blue suit and walked into our consciousness and history. The coverage of her accusation that Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas had sexually harassed her at the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission seemed like a circus, complete with flashing cameras, clueless senators and salivating commentators. Still not jaded by experience and convinced that there was purpose and meaning to these public confessionals, I was appal

Oct. 23, 2017

[Christine Flowers] #metoo and women’s sympathy bandwagon

[Conor Sen] When Wall Street looks pricey, the rest of the US thrives

In the glory days of the early 1980s, stocks and bonds were cheap and Wall Street became the center of the American economy. But those cheap asset prices did a lot of structural damage to US society, some of which is still becoming clear. The pricey stock market and skinny bond yields of 2017, by contrast, may pay unexpected dividends in the future.Asset prices tend to have an inverse relationship with the strength of the labor market. When unemployment is low, like it is now and like it was in

Oct. 23, 2017

[Christopher Balding] China‘s toughest job?

Zhou Xiaochuan, governor of the People’s Bank of China, has guided his country’s monetary policy for most of the 21st century. He was appointed in 2002, shortly after China joined the World Trade Organization, and helped steer its economy through the global financial crisis. In the process, he gained widespread respect at home and a reputation for prudent liberalism abroad.Lately, Zhou has been circulating widely. At a forum in June, he criticized protectionism in China’s financial sector. In an

Oct. 23, 2017

[By Matt Levine] Are blockchain diplomas the real deal?

How can I tell if you have a degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology? One way would be for me to ask about MIT. If they say yes, then you have a degree from MIT. If they say no, then you don‘t. That is what having a degree from MIT, customarily, means: that MIT acknowledges you as a graduate. MIT is an important credentialing institution because a lot of people trust its degree-granting process. It is, to use the term of art, a trusted intermediary. It is well suited to keep the le

Oct. 23, 2017

[David Ignatius] Raqqa is a reminder of US military might

Looking at photographs of the ruined, desolate streets of what was once the Islamic State group’s capital of Raqqa is a reminder of the overwhelming, pitilessly effective military power of the United States.Perhaps it’s a tribute to the inevitable nature of American force, once it‘s engaged, that the fall of Raqqa this week provoked so little public discussion. Commentators focused on whether President Trump had dissed the parents of America’s fallen warriors, but they barely seemed to notice th

Oct. 22, 2017

[David Ignatius] Raqqa is a reminder of US military might

[Letter to the editor] A word of thanks and gratitude

My 22-year-old daughter recently visited South Korea country for the first time and doing so was not a decision her dad and I supported, owing to the current political unrest in the neighboring North Korea. However, she found the local people to be kind and generous, which made her stay relaxing and enjoyable. One incident that really punctuated how impressed I became with your country happened when she and her friends visited Busan. My daughter lost her wallet there. She and her friends scoured

Oct. 22, 2017

[Kyle Harper] Was the fall of Rome a biological phenomenon?

Bill Gates is worried. The tech entrepreneur and philanthropist has been using his megaphone to warn us of the catastrophic risk posed by infectious diseases. In the Western world, where mortality from lethal germs has mostly receded into the background, the burden of infectious disease can seem like someone else’s problem. But the struggle between humanity and infectious disease is never someone else’s problem -- certainly not in our globally interconnected society. And while modern medicine ha

Oct. 22, 2017

[Kyle Harper] Was the fall of Rome a biological phenomenon?

[Jay Ambrose] Redo the phony Iran deal

It is bogus, it is dangerous, it was built on lies and capitulation, cheating has been going on, the so-called inspection system is a farce, and President Donald Trump wants to do something about it, this nuclear arms deal with Iran.Every 90 days the president has a responsibility to decertify the program if Iran has overstepped the bounds. It has and he did, but did not say we were walking out of the seven-party agreement that will almost certainly stay in place.All kinds of options are neverth

Oct. 22, 2017

[The Japan News] Will Xi intensify hegemonic stance via economic, military strength?

The country’s objective of building up its military strength and becoming dominant in the world as a “great power” has been established. But isn’t it nothing but hegemonism to assert that the country will make light of such universal values as the rule of law and instead rely more on strength?Held once every five years, the Communist Party of China’s National Congress opened, and the party’s general secretary, Chinese President Xi Jinping made a speech.Delivering the political report, which summ

Oct. 22, 2017