In autumn 2007, Jorma Ollila, who had stepped down the year before as Nokia’s chief executive officer but was still the chairman, polled 12 top company executives on whether they thought Apple’s new iPhone posed a big threat. Two said “no,” Ollila recalls in “Against All Odds,” a surprisingly engrossing memoir first published in Finland in 2013 but just now translated into English.The other 10 thought the iPhone would prove a serious competitor that we shouldn’t underestimate. Some of them expre

Viewpoints Oct. 23, 2016

It is not easy to keep an orderly house in an unsettled neighborhood. That’s the major hurdle facing Asian economies as the advanced world deals with unusual economic, financial, institutional and political fluidity. Judging from China’s gross domestic product data released this week, Asia is in a relatively favorable position to navigate the challenges. But the battle is far from won.In more normal times, Asia only needed to ask two major economic questions about the advanced countries: How str

Viewpoints Oct. 23, 2016

I knew a group of men, brilliant scientists and astute attorneys, who took jobs with the federal government to serve their country and make it a better place. They were college graduates of the 1960s who had heard John F. Kennedy’s call to public service -- “Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country” -- and who a decade later took JFK’s challenge into government jobs in food safety and environmental protection.But within two decades, Ronald Reagan ascended to

Viewpoints Oct. 23, 2016

Voters in Washington state will be asked next month whether they want to adopt the nation‘s first carbon tax -- a powerful way to curb greenhouse-gas emissions. You’d think environmental groups would be doing everything they can to back that idea. You‘d be wrong.Initiative 732 will be on the ballot on Election Day. It calls for a $25-per-ton carbon tax, and it says how the proceeds should be spent: Trim the state’s sales tax, cut taxes on manufacturers, and give tax rebates to low-income househo

Viewpoints Oct. 23, 2016

South Korea and the US are key players in the efforts to cope with nuclear and missile threats from North Korea, which for now come in two forms -- sanctions and military deterrence. It seems that punishing the North for its latest nuclear and missile provocations is on the right track. The UN has already imposed the harshest-ever sanctions against the Pyongyang regime and its key members. The international community led by the US is straining the North’s economic system by ostracizing its inter

Editorial Oct. 23, 2016

Small investors’ anger over the Sept. 30 share-dumping scandal involving Hanmi Pharmaceutical is showing no signs of abating.A core allegation is that massive short sales were conducted simultaneously by a group of local and foreign brokerage firms on the day, which accessed the drugmaker’s internal information before it was publicized on the stock market.Criminal investigators raided about 10 securities firms on Wednesday, following their earlier move to confiscate a variety of documents at the

Editorial Oct. 20, 2016

One is American. Another is anti-America. The third has just sneaked in and out of America; he and America are strange bedfellows at the moment. But Donald Trump, Rodrigo Duterte and Thaksin Shinawatra have at least one thing in common: Their boasting and provocative comments know no bounds.　Trump‘s “race to the bottom,” as his opponents term it, is in full throttle, although as far as he is concerned there is no bottom in sight. His political incorrectness is testing everyone’s limits with each

Viewpoints Oct. 20, 2016

Hillary Clinton won‘t be the only winner when Donald Trump and his fellow haters are defeated on Election Day (as looks increasingly likely). Another will be Paul Ryan, who will rule the Republican roost.　Democrats may take back the Senate, but they won’t take back the House. Gerrymandering has given House Republicans an impregnable fortress of safe seats.　This means that in order for President Hillary Clinton to get anything done, she‘ll have to make deals with Speaker of the House Paul Ryan.　W

Viewpoints Oct. 20, 2016

With so much happening in the US, including a pivotal presidential election and coastal states’ daunting recovery from Hurricane Matthew, maybe it’s understandable that the storm’s impact on Haiti has been an afterthought for many Americans. But the death and destruction in the Western Hemisphere’s poorest nation shouldn’t be ignored.The United States and Haiti were the first nations in the hemisphere to break free from colonial rule.A 2010 earthquake that left more than 200,000 dead and sproute

Viewpoints Oct. 20, 2016

The controversy sparked by former Foreign Minister Song Min-soon’s memoir is agitating the political community partly because of the deep-rooted ideological divide between conservatives and liberals, who often confront one another over how to deal with North Korea. Another reason it has become a bone of contention is that Moon Jae-in, the leading potential presidential candidate of the main opposition party, is a key figure in the controversy.  Opinion polls show that Moon, who lost the 2012 ele

Editorial Oct. 19, 2016