[Doyle McManus] Joe Biden opted to go big

When Joe Biden arrived in the White House, he promised a new dawn of unity and bipartisanship. But when he began to pursue a COVID-19 relief bill, he met with Republican senators for only about two hours before deciding to push the measure through the US Congress without further negotiations. Biden had two goals at the outset: to go big and to make the process bipartisan. They turned out to be incompatible. “We got a chance to do something big here,” the president said Friday in a

Feb. 10, 2021

[Eli Lake] Biden wants to mend US-Saudi ties

Anyone paying attention for the last three years should not be surprised that President Joe Biden on Thursday announced the end to US support for Saudi offensive operations in Yemen, calling the war a “humanitarian and strategic catastrophe.” Most of Biden’s party has given up on the Saudi regime, particularly after its agents murdered and then dismembered Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi in October 2018. But it would be a mistake to read too much into the Biden admin

Feb. 9, 2021

[Andreas Kluth] US-German discord over Russian gas

The new transatlantic honeymoon isn’t over yet. German Chancellor Angela Merkel, like most European leaders, is still basking in the afterglow of Joe Biden’s inauguration as the 46th president of the US. After Number 45, of course, she’d have warm feelings for anybody. And yet, it’s just a matter of time -- days or weeks -- before they’ll need to have an awkward talk. The topic will be Russia. The US and Germany have long been at odds about an almost finished pipel

Feb. 8, 2021

[Ram Garikipati] GameStop frenzy amid shorting debate in Korea

Retail investors across the world, including South Korea, were captivated recently by the revolt against short selling by Wall Street hedge funds, which jacked up the stocks of a few firms, video game retailer GameStop in particular. Shorting refers to transactions in which an investor borrows stocks and sells them soon in hopes of buying back later at a lower price before returning them, taking advantage of perceived arbitrage opportunities. In the case of GameStop, institutional short selle

Feb. 8, 2021

[Digital Simplicity] Spotify and Teleparty signal importance of new digital experience

Audio streaming service Spotify made its debut in South Korea on Tuesday, signaling a fresh round of competition among streaming apps. A lot of digital music fans here have high hopes for Spotify, which has a library of some 60 million songs and allows users to listen to plenty of music under a “freemium” plan. The high level of attention Spotify attracts actually reflects the solid positions of Korean streaming players such as Melon, Genie Music and Flo. Even though Apple Music,

Feb. 6, 2021

[Noah Smith] Take heart, doomscrollers, America's on the way back

Last year made it feel as if the US was a nation in steep decline. And in some worrying ways it is. But looking back on 2020, and looking ahead to 2021, there are signs that the country has robust reservoirs of strength and effectiveness that will cause it to outperform the gloomiest expectations. It may not be morning in America yet, but it’s past midnight. The clearest example is the vaccination race. Despite problems with the initial rollout, the US public health system has now found i

Feb. 5, 2021

[Lee Kyong-hee] A filmmaker’s odyssey to uncover history

An estimated 100,000 children were orphaned during the Korean War (1950-1953). Families in North America and Western Europe adopted many of the South Korean orphans. That is well documented. But much less known is the fate of North Korean children who lost their parents amid the bloody conflict. It’s been said that thousands of them were sent to Eastern Europe to receive “foster education.” “Kim Il Sung’s Children,” a 2020 indie documentary film, traces the N

Feb. 4, 2021

[Joseph E. Stiglitz] Biden goes big in COVID stimulus

US President Joe Biden has proposed a $1.9 trillion rescue plan to help the American economy recover from the pandemic. Many Republicans oppose it, suddenly consumed with the fiscal religion they unceremoniously abandon whenever their party controls the White House. The massive tax cuts the GOP bestowed on billionaires and corporations in 2017 resulted in the highest US fiscal deficits on record. But the promised investment and growth never materialized. By contrast, Biden’s proposed spen

Feb. 4, 2021

[Kim Seong-kon] Between shame and fame, repelling and charming

Recently, we have been watching the fall of our prominent politicians due to their disgraceful acts or fraudulent lives in the past. The irony is that these hypocrites have preached social justice, fairness, and equality, while clandestinely pursuing unfair privileges and unjust advantages, abusing the powers that they were given. To make matters worse, the hypocrites do not hesitate to do evil things under the pretense of good. Obviously, they believe that the end justifies the means. So they

Feb. 3, 2021

[Contribution] Three considerations for changing climate action

A quote from the book “The Art of Praise” by Yoshiyuki Suzuki has recently caught my eye: “The act of praise is completed when you convey the words the other person truly wants to hear.” I think this quote can be applied to complimenting others, but also to different types of communication. We can also apply this quote to climate change. Different sectors and levels of society have been calling for immediate action for climate change. But do the messages about climate ac

Feb. 2, 2021

[Tyler Cowen] Focus on families, not on wages

The Democratic Party has before it a choice between two economic policies: a big increase in the federal minimum wage, to $15 an hour from $7.25; and a per-child cash benefit of several thousand dollars a year. The decision will have major implications, for the future of both the party and the US economy. The cash benefit is clearly the better option. One problem with the minimum wage hike is that it is not clear how many people are harmed and how many low-skilled workers will lose their jobs,

Feb. 2, 2021

[Ivo Daalder] Biden takes a balanced approach to Russia

For the past 30 years, every new president entering the White House since the Cold War did so determined to improve relations with Russia. Bill Clinton believed more economic assistance would help Russian President Boris Yeltsin transform the economy and strengthen democracy. George W. Bush famously looked into President Vladimir Putin’s eyes and “got a sense of his soul.” Barack Obama promised to press the “reset” button in his relations with President Dmitry Medv

Feb. 2, 2021

[Jean Pisani-Ferry] A global pandemic alarm bell

Seen from Europe, Asia, or even North America, Manaus, the capital of the Brazilian state of Amazonas, is as remote as can be. Yet the 501Y.V3 variant of the coronavirus recently detected there has already been identified as a global threat, because its emergence in a city where two-thirds of the population was already infected in the spring of 2020 suggests that acquired immunity does not protect against it. Scientists speculate whether 501Y.V3 may also thwart some of the existing vaccines. Ev

Feb. 1, 2021

[James Stavridis] Trump got a space force. Biden should get a cyber force

Nearly lost in the tumult of the Jan. 6 insurrection at the Capitol and the excitement of Joe Biden‘s inauguration is the continuing fallout from the massive data breach of SolarWinds Corp. by suspected Russian hackers. As the new team settles into office, what can it do to keep the nation safe in cyberspace? Let’s begin with the scale of the hack. SolarWinds was a prime vendor to tens of thousands of clients, including hundreds of Fortune 500 enterprises and nearly the entire US go

Feb. 1, 2021

[Serendipity] Cheer on the young

Alas, before I have had a chance to decide on a New Year’s resolution, or decide whether to ditch the whole idea of making resolutions as suggested by some self-improvement gurus, we are nearing the end of January. A whole month has gone by in the blink of an eye and now there are only 11 months left to the year. It is said that when you reach a certain stage in life, the passage of time feels different, that time appears to pass more quickly. Some experts attribute this to brain chemical

Jan. 29, 2021

[Robert J. Fouser] What next Seoul mayor should do

On April 7, 2021, Seoul will hold a special election for mayor. Seoul has been without a mayor since former Mayor Park Won-soon’s shocking suicide in July 2020. The election of a new mayor will stir discussion of how the city should move forward as the COVID-19 pandemic recedes. As the leader of the capital city and the overwhelmingly dominant city, the mayor of Seoul is influential. Several mayors have dreamed of becoming president and one, Lee Myung-bak, succeeded in the 2007. The new m

Jan. 29, 2021

[Kim Myong-sik] Is Korean police ready for new role?

Last week, the Korean National Police Agency announced a major personnel reshuffle, involving almost all of its 550 superintendents, the core of the police force. Printed in fine letters, the names and their short and long new titles occupied nearly half of a newspaper page. The 2021 reassignments of senior police personnel had to be more extensive than in previous years because the KNPA was making a new start with a new organizational structure in three tiers, namely the National Police Agenc

Jan. 28, 2021

[Kim Seong-kon] Godspeed for the USS Biden

On Jan. 20, 2021, the Biden era has officially begun in the United States. Watching the inauguration ceremony, many Americans and foreigners look forward to the restoration of the America they used to know. That is to say, the America that the Founding Fathers originally dreamed of, the America that led the world as a peacekeeper, and the America that the world looked up to as a land of liberty, equality, and justice. As President Biden announced, “America is back,” and “Make

Jan. 27, 2021

[Noah Feldman] Congress losing power for a hundred years

The storming of the US Capitol on Jan. 6 was a real lowlight for Congress. At least during the sacking of Washington in the war of 1812, the White House burned alongside the Capitol. But on Jan. 6, 2021 the head of the executive branch urged his followers to interfere with the operation of the legislative branch. The entire sequence of events is a reminder that congressional power has been receding relative to the executive branch for almost a century. Now is the time for Congress to stand up f

Jan. 27, 2021

[Trudy Rubin] Biden’s first big foreign policy test

President Joe Biden was absolutely correct when he said “the world is watching all of us today,” as he delivered his inaugural address Wednesday from the very spot where a mob stormed the Capitol two weeks before. Biden’s message “to those beyond our borders” was that “America has been tested and we’ve come out stronger. … We will repair our alliances and engage with the world once again. And we’ll lead, not merely by the example of our pow

Jan. 26, 2021