[Digital Simplicity] Why smartphone users need more midrange models

When technology advances and related gadgets become widely available, what tends to happen is a steady decrease in hardware prices. Mainstream smartphones are getting pricier each year, putting a strain on limited household budgets. Of course, Korean consumers can get popular smartphones from Samsung Electronics and Apple at a discount by signing up for data plans with mobile carriers. But even with such deals, the prices for the latest Galaxy and iPhone series are easily above 1 million won

Sept. 12, 2020

[Robert J. Fouser] America’s ‘lost two decades’

Nineteen years ago today, terrorists hijacked two planes and flew them into the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York City, killing thousands. George W. Bush, the US president at the time declared a “War on Terror” that led to the US military action in Afghanistan and Iraq. At home, wide-reaching reforms were adopted to secure air travel and prevent another terrorist attack. Shortly after the attacks, the media was full of stories about how the attacks would “chang

Sept. 11, 2020

[Ferdinando Giugliano] ECB needs Italy and Spain to help themselves

The European Central Bank’s governing council meets this week amid a less optimistic mood than before the summer break. The recovery in Europe is losing speed and there are early signs of divergence, with some euro-zone countries rebounding faster than others. ECB President Christine Lagarde still has several tricks up her sleeve to help the monetary union respond to the pandemic’s economic shock. But, unlike previous crises in Europe, governments will have to take the lead this tim

Sept. 10, 2020

[Kim Myong-sik] ‘Prosecution reform’ drive takes wrong direction

What is prosecution reform? They say it is to ensure that our prosecutors respect human rights in every stage of a criminal investigation and that they maintain independence from outside interference while their power is restricted to establishing justice. Regrettably, we witnessed over the past three years no evidence of the above being realized. Instead, signs are that politics creeps into the process of law enforcement and, worst of all, favoritism rules the posting of prosecutors. Adding a

Sept. 10, 2020

[Ramesh Ponnuru] A smarter way for Biden to attack Trump

President Donald Trump poses an unusual problem for his opposition. He’s “a target-rich environment,” said Ruy Teixeira, a senior fellow at the liberal Center for American Progress. “He has befuddled his opponents by giving them too much to react to. It keeps the Democrats from having a disciplined message about why Trump sucks.” Depending on the news cycle, the anti-Trump message may be that he is a tool of Russian President Vladimir Putin, or a racist, or a threa

Sept. 9, 2020

[Kim Seong-kon] We should be like the ‘Snows of Kilimanjaro‘

Recently I came across “Snows of Kilimanjaro,” a collection of English poems by a Korean-American poet, Yearn Hong Choi. The title intrigued me because I very much admire Ernest Hemingway’s short story, “The Snows of Kilimanjaro.” In the epitaph of the celebrated story, Hemingway wrote, “Kilimanjaro is a snow-covered mountain 19,710 feet high, and is said to be the highest mountain in Africa. Its western summit is called the Masai “Ngàje Ngà

Sept. 9, 2020

[Michael R. Strain] Exploding US debt is a problem, not an emergency

The US Government programs to blunt the economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic will make the federal budget deficit much wider in 2020 than at any point in the last 75 years. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office’s new forecasts, released this week, predict that the deficit will be over $3.3 trillion this year, or 16 percent of annual economic output. Measured as a share of GDP, the annual US budget deficit hasn’t hit double digits since 1945. The CBO forecasts that the 20

Sept. 8, 2020

[Jan-Werner Mueller] The parties must go on

The recent Republican National Convention in the US was scandalous for many reasons -- from the misuse of the White House as a campaign prop (in violation of the Hatch Act and long-standing norms) and the brazen mendacity of its speakers to the parade of Trump family members. Amid the tawdry spectacle of the GOP being transformed into a subsidiary of the Trump Organization, one shocking aspect stood out: The party offered no platform. The Republicans’ only purpose, apparently, is “to

Sept. 8, 2020

[Mihir Sharma] Rest of Asia will miss Abe more than Japan will

A month before he ended his first stint as Japan’s prime minister in 2007, Shinzo Abe addressed the Indian Parliament in New Delhi. Quoting the Mughal scholar-prince Dara Shikoh, Abe spoke of the “confluence of the two seas” -- the Indian and Pacific Oceans -- that were undergoing a “dynamic coupling as seas of freedom and of prosperity.” India and Japan, said Abe, shared an interest in and responsibility for securing these seas “by joining forces with like-mi

Sept. 7, 2020

[Kay C. James] We must educate future generations on myths and realities of socialism

A frightening 70 percent of millennials say they would back a socialist candidate for office. And today, we are seeing many socialist ideas gaining traction, such as “free” college tuition for all, government-run health care and a guaranteed income even for able-bodied people who don’t work. While we can blame some of the attraction to socialism on its false promises of fixing every social ill, the nearly inescapable indoctrination present in our schools and universities, and

Sept. 7, 2020

[Serendipity] In these unusual times, adversity may be unforeseen opportunity

The young men have done it yet again. The trailblazing K-pop boy band’s latest single, “Dynamite,” hit No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, the first South Korean music ever to do so. The announcement, which followed on the heels of the seven-member group’s impressive win of four awards -- best pop, best group, best choreography and best K-pop for “On,” released in February as the lead song for “Map of the Soul 7” -- at the MTV Awards held only a few

Sept. 4, 2020

[Tyler Cowen] No, America will not be canceled

One of the most hotly debated questions among my friends and acquaintances lately is this: Is America headed for a future in which just about everyone has been canceled? Fortunately, while “cancel culture” and political correctness have become stronger and more influential over the last few years, these movements have built-in limitations. They will prove to be a durable element of American culture, but by no means a dominant one. How do I know? I don’t, of course, but consid

Sept. 4, 2020

[Ana Palacio] A Democratic Doomsday?

In 1947, two years after Hiroshima and Nagasaki were decimated by nuclear bombs, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists launched the Doomsday Clock to convey the world proximity to annihilation -- and to spur action to “turn back time.” Today, it is worth considering the need to create a clock to show how close our democracies are to collapse. On such a Democracy Doomsday Clock, we would be rapidly approaching midnight. Liberal democracy is founded on the idea that individuals acting

Sept. 3, 2020

[Lee Kyong-hee] An artist’s life -- checkered and forgotten

The nation is at war. The war is raging on two major fronts. One is against the invisible coronavirus. The other, much older and deep-seated, divides the country, so accustomed to politicizing and ideologizing along unclear lines of right and left, or conservatives and progressives. In a situation like this, it must seem insensitive, or even like a luxury, to discuss art or an artist’s life. However, I was attracted to one particular art exhibition devoted to Pai Un-soung. Pai occupies a

Sept. 3, 2020

[Tim Culpan] China just called Trump’s bluff on TikTok

Imagine a bidder wanting to buy KFC, but being told the deal might not include the Colonel’s 11 secret herbs and spices. That’s effectively what Beijing has told the list of US companies keen to purchase short-video app TikTok: The key ingredients may be out of reach. At first it looked like the Trump administration had it all figured out. ByteDance, it decided, was a risk to national security and the Chinese company’s main product for international markets had to be sold.

Sept. 2, 2020

[Kim Seong-kon] Things that make us sad these days

When German poet Anton Schnack wrote the celebrated essay “Things That Make Us Sad” last century, he referred to sentimental, melancholic objects such as a small dead bird found in the garden, drizzling autumn rain and indecipherable graffiti in a desolate castle. He also mentioned old letters from a deceased father that read, “My son, you gave me so many sleepless nights.” In 2020, a plethora of things make us sad in Korea, too. Unfortunately, however, we do not have th

Sept. 2, 2020

[Anjani Trivedi] The big China disaster you’re missing

The world’s largest dam is under pressure in the massive flooding that’s wiping away billions of dollars of value in China. The predicament symbolizes a looming crisis for Beijing. Climate change is bringing more frequent and intense deluges that threaten the economic heartland, and infrastructure defenses installed with the disasters of previous eras in mind can’t keep up. There’s very little time to prepare for what’s coming. The problem isn’t that Chi

Sept. 1, 2020

[Jean Pisani-Ferry] Trump’s international economic legacy

It would be foolish to start celebrating the end of US President Donald Trump’s administration, but it is not too soon to ponder the impact he will have left on the international economic system if his Democratic challenger, Joe Biden, wins November’s election. In some areas, a one-term Trump presidency would most likely leave an insignificant mark, which Biden could easily erase. But in several others, the last four years may well come to be seen as a watershed. Moreover, the long s

Aug. 31, 2020

[Noah Smith] Abe leaves behind a better Japan

Shinzo Abe, Japan’s longest-serving prime minister, is resigning due to ulcerative colitis. He leaves behind a Japan that is both economically stronger and more socially liberal than the one he inherited. When Shinzo Abe took over Japan’s leadership in late 2012, I was extremely skeptical. After a short and unimpressive tenure in office in the mid-2000s, Abe seemed unlikely to rise to the challenge of Japan’s faltering economy and unequal society. And the fact he emerged from

Aug. 31, 2020