[Adam Minter] China could seize a bit of the skies

Last week, the Commercial Aviation Corp. of China (Comac) announced that the C919, China’s first homemade large passenger jet, had chalked up its 730th preorder. Those numbers won’t necessarily make the Boeing or Airbus SE quake; Boeing estimates Chinese airlines alone will require 5,420 new single-aisle planes by 2036. Ultimately, though, they could herald the end of global aviation’s great duopoly.Most of the C919’s orders come from state-owned Chinese companies, some of whom probably wouldn’t

Sept. 28, 2017

[Letter to editor] Moon: bread-and-circuses?

I am the Canadian owner and director of an English hagwon near Suwon. I’ve lived in Korea for 17 years now, been married to my lovely Korean wife for 15, and been running a hagwon for about 10.Much has happened in my time here since the year 2000. I’ve watched the stellar rise of Samsung, LG, Hyundai, and others. I’ve seen Korea reach the final four in the World Cup, and I’ve learned very much to respect the hard-working attitude of Korean workers and students. It is with great pride that I tell

Sept. 28, 2017

[Namwali Serpell] Becoming an American citizen in the age of Trump

I felt my first real twinge of regret about not being a US citizen in 2008, when Barack Obama was elected president.An American university where my father once worked as a professor had helped secure green cards for my whole family, in 1992. (I was 11 at the time.) I had renewed my green card twice since then. People often asked why I hadn’t applied for citizenship. This is the life I’m used to, I’d say: smugly returning jury notices, watching elections from a safe distance, standing in endless

Sept. 28, 2017

[Letter to the Editor] Reforming institutions needed for sustained growth

South Korea needs to improve the institutional environment if it wants to achieve sustained growthRecently, Korea hosted an international conference in Seoul addressing sustained growth in Asia. Surprisingly, Korea’s economic growth model is quite similar to the Japanese model. Although Korea has maintained conservative monetary policy and fiscal balance, the nation does not have sufficient resources to support its aging population. Policymakers are concerned about Japanese-style stagnation if K

Sept. 27, 2017

[Leonid Bershidsky] Germany’s nationalists join 13 percent club

The Alternative for Germany (AfD) result of 12.6 percent in Sunday’s election wraps up an important political season for European nationalist populists. It’s a showing that has worried many both in and outside Germany; but, all things considered, it’s another defeat for the far right, which appears to have hit its ceiling in Western Europe for now.The AfD was promptly congratulated by Geert Wilders, whose Party for Freedom (PVV) won 13.1 percent of the vote in the Netherlands in March, and by Ma

Sept. 27, 2017

[Noah Feldman] Trump’s new travel ban could win over justices

Can the addition of North Korea and Venezuela save President Donald Trump’s third travel ban from the constitutional flaws of his first two? By rights, the answer should be no -- and the new ban would be unlikely to survive careful judicial scrutiny of its shaky logic.But in the real world, the US Supreme Court may take the opportunity to de-escalate the ongoing conflict between the Trump administration and the judiciary. If that is so, a majority of the justices could simply defer to Trump’s as

Sept. 27, 2017

[Justin Fox] The consequences of the US baby bust

As people in other wealthy countries fretted in the 1990s and 2000s over what falling birthrates would mean for economic growth and retirement-program finances, the US seemed to have far less to worry about. Fertility here remained at or near the replacement rate of 2.1 births per woman over her lifetime, and the country’s long-honed ability to attract immigrants and quickly integrate them into the workforce provided a further economic boost.Times have changed. Immigration has been a contentious

Sept. 26, 2017

[Trudy Rubin] Best approach to Iran deal: Fix it, don’t nix it

There seems to be no end to nuclear crises these days.As North Korea’s Kim Jong-un plays nuclear chicken with the great powers, another dangerous moment is approaching. The world awaits President Trump’s decision -- due Oct. 15 -- on how he will handle the 2015 deal with Tehran that curbed Iran’s nuclear program in return for the lifting of international sanctions.In his UN speech Tuesday, Trump called the deal one of the worst he’s ever seen. And it does indeed contain big flaws, most notably i

Sept. 26, 2017

[Robert Fouser] Donald Trump’s North Korea strategy

Speeches to the United Nations General Assembly are usually diplomatic, but not this year. US President Donald Trump took the opportunity this year to lash out at North Korea by threatening to “totally destroy” it and referring to its leader Kim Jong-un as “Rocket Man.” Kim responded by calling Trump a “mentally deranged US dotard” and holding an anti-American rally in Pyongyang. The recent round of insults has raised tensions and questions about what each man is trying to achieve.　The key to un

Sept. 26, 2017

[Michael Schuman] Can South Korea save liberalism?

While much of the world’s attention is fixated on North Korea and its nuclear ambitions, something with the potential to be equally globe-rattling is taking place, generally unnoticed, in South Korea. There, new President Moon Jae-in is charting an entirely contrary course in economic policy than much of the rest of the developed world. If successful, the experiment could alter how governments tackle the most challenging problems of our day. Moon is embarking on a highly liberal economic program

Sept. 26, 2017

[Jay Ambrose] Trump not that bad at UN

Take it easy, you want to advise President Donald Trump when he says in a United Nations speech that the United States is going to “totally destroy” North Korea if it attacks us or our allies. But there is something you want to add.Don’t take it as easy as Presidents Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obama, who irresponsibly set us up for long-lasting intimidation, still more nuclear proliferation and the increased possibility of a nuclear holocaust down the road.It was 23 years ago that P

Sept. 25, 2017

[Adam N. Michel] How corporate tax cuts would benefit workers

Businesses seldom raise wages due to a sense of corporate benevolence. Rather, wages rise when the demand for workers increases. This forces businesses to increase wages out of self-interest in order to keep their employees from being hired away by competitors.This basic tenet of economics explains why corporate tax cuts produce higher wages for workers.That may seem counterintuitive. Most people think a corporate tax cut just means bigger profits for businesses -- profits that are used to line

Sept. 25, 2017

[Christine M. Flowers] Plenty of reasons to cheer about Trump’s speech to the United Nations

While other people worried about what President Donald Trump meant when he discussed “sovereignty,” and while other people wrung their hands and mopped their brows because he wasn’t being polite to North Korea, seated in the front row at his inaugural speech to the United Nations, I heard this: “It is a massive source of embarrassment to the United Nations that some governments with egregious human rights records sit on the UN Human Rights Council.”While journalists hyperventilated about the ton

Sept. 25, 2017

[Editorial] Adjust anti-graft law

An anti-graft law targeting public officials, media workers, teachers and their spouses will have been in force for a full year on Thursday. Obviously, the Improper Solicitations and Graft Prohibition Act has produced positive results, and it is a welcome phenomenon for the law to have paved the way for a more ethical culture. A clear majority of Koreans believe the law has served its objective of rooting out corruption.According to a survey of 1,202 people, released by the Korean Sociological A

Sept. 25, 2017