[Kim Seong-kon] A trustworthy society and a reliable country

Although I am not much of an outdoors person, I like to hike up the mountain near my home every morning. This daily ritual, which takes about half an hour, replenishes and invigorates me. There is one minor problem though. As soon as I start climbing, I am attacked by a swarm of mosquitoes that want to revel in an orgy of blood.I bought a liquid mosquito repellent and sprayed it all over my body before trekking. The brand was famous, so I trusted it wholeheartedly. To my great disappointment, ho

Sept. 8, 2015

[Jeffrey Frankel] China confronts the market

China’s current economic woes have largely been viewed through a single lens: the government’s failure to let the market operate. But that perspective has led foreign observers to misinterpret some of this year’s most important developments in the foreign-exchange and stock markets.To be sure, Chinese authorities do intervene strongly in various ways. From 2004 to 2013, the People’s Bank of China bought trillions of dollars in foreign-exchange reserves, thereby preventing the yuan from appreciat

Sept. 7, 2015

[John H.Cha] To war or not to war: Guns of August on peninsula

A former diplomat opined recently that inter-Korea relations will significantly improve on account of the Aug. 25 agreement reached by the high-ranking officials from the respective governments. The agreement came at the conclusion of a 44-hour negotiation session, staving off the crisis that seemed to escalate to the point of no return. The agreement is a good thing, to be sure. But I am not ready to share the rose-colored glasses the veteran diplomat is wearing. On Aug. 25, Hwang Pyong-so, the

Sept. 6, 2015

[David Ignatious] What is Netanyahu’s next step?

What does Israel do now that President Obama has won the congressional votes needed to implement an Iran nuclear agreement that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described as “a stunning historic mistake”?This was always the danger of Netanyahu’s unyielding rhetorical stand against the Iran deal, and his politically divisive campaign to block it in Congress: What if he failed? Would the Israeli leader try to rebuild bipartisan relations in Washington, or would he double-down once again, by encou

Sept. 6, 2015

[Robert B. Reich] For a happy Labor Day 2028

In 1928, famed British economist John Maynard Keynes predicted that technology would advance so far in a hundred years — by 2028 — that it would replace all work, and no one would need to worry about making money:“For the first time since his creation man will be faced with his real, his permanent problem — how to use his freedom from pressing economic cares, how to occupy the leisure, which science and compound interest will have won for him, to live wisely and agreeably and well.”　We still hav

Sept. 4, 2015

[David Ignatius] Our stake in the future - and the past

Why should people care about the past or the future? That may sound like a perverse question, but it’s at the center of two recent stories — one involving the Islamic State’s destruction of antiquities at Palmyra in Syria, and the other a presidential warning about damage to the planet decades hence.The unpleasant, amoral question usually doesn’t get asked: Why should people give a hoot about their ancestors or descendants? What constrains us from simply acting selfishly?　Certainly, we don’t hav

Sept. 3, 2015

[Rafia Zakaria] Women in Sri Lanka remain subjugated after war

Technically, the war in Sri Lanka has long been over. The over 25-year-long conflict between Sri Lankan government forces and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam ended in 2009, after the loss of some 80,000 lives.　In the Northern Provincial Council elections in 2013, the Tamil National Alliance won 30 out of 38 seats.　The development promised that conditions for the long beleaguered minority in Sri Lanka’s north would improve.　Conditions for women, it was expected, would also get better, a cess

Sept. 3, 2015

[Kim Myong-sik] Renewing contacts with more vulnerable North

It is likely that there will be another round of inter-Korean family reunions at the Mt. Geumgangsan resort and high-level political talks in Seoul or Pyongyang next month. But people who have lived through the often deceptive process of South-North relations and outside watchers of the Korean Peninsula must now have a disturbing sense of deja vu, ready for a new cycle of expectation and disappointment. Seoul officials up to President Park Geun-hye appear buoyed after National Security chief Kim

Sept. 2, 2015

[Lee Joo-hee] Pardon our anchor babies

Birth tourism, or “wonjeong chulsan” as it is called in South Korea, literally meaning “birth away from home,” has recently garnered attention following U.S. GOP presidential candidate Jeb Bush’s remarks on Asian “anchor babies.”His comments, aimed apparently to placate Hispanic voters at the sacrifice of the smaller pool of Asian-American voters, naturally stoked vilification against his politically-charged, xenophobic slant.But Bush’s comment reminded Korea -- a source of thousands of anchor b

Sept. 2, 2015

[Kim Seong-kon] Remembering Edward Said’s call for reconciliation

When September comes around every year, I remember my mentor, Edward W. Said, who sadly passed away in September 2003. More than 10 years have passed since he left this world, but Said’s influence can still be felt all over the world. When Abraham Lincoln was assassinated in 1865, Walt Whitman lamented his abrupt death, exclaiming, “O Captain! My Captain!” So did scholars of postcolonialism and cultural imperialism when Said died of leukemia when he was at his best. He was only 67.　A few days ag

Sept. 1, 2015

[Clive Crook] What if 2008 financial crisis comes around again?

By the end of the week, stocks, currencies and commodity prices weren’t crashing any longer but financial markets were far from settled. Over the past 10 days, markets have plummeted, paused, recovered and fallen again. There’s little sign the anxiety is lifting.Until recently investors had been preoccupied with the weakness of the post-2008 recovery. Now some are asking whether 2008 might come round again. It’s an especially disturbing possibility because, on the face of it, the policy options

Aug. 31, 2015

[David Ignatius] Drones cover intelligence blunders

Jabhat al-Nusra, the al-Qaida affiliate in Syria, has disclosed that it suffered heavy casualties when the U.S. launched drone attacks last month to defend a moderate opposition group called “Division 30.”“The U.S. strikes caused some of our dear brothers to be granted their martyrdom and others got wounded,” wrote a Dutch fighter named Abu Mohammad al-Hollandi in a Twitter posting on July 31, the day of the battle. “We from Nusra decided to make a tactical retreat & thus minimize the possible c

Aug. 31, 2015

[J. Bradford DeLong] A cautionary history of U.S. monetary tightening

The U.S. Federal Reserve has embarked on an effort to tighten monetary policy four times in the past four decades. On every one of these occasions, the effort triggered processes that reduced employment and output far more than the Fed’s staff had anticipated. As the Fed prepares to tighten monetary policy once again, an examination of this history -- and of the current state of the economy -- suggests that the United States is about to enter dangerous territory.Between 1979 and 1982, then-Fed C

Aug. 30, 2015