Even before the shocking events of the past few days, the international policy community had been contemplating a successor to Dominique Strauss-Kahn at the International Monetary Fund.Strauss-Kahn, the IMF managing director, was expected to begin campaigning soon for the presidency of France. Now, whatever happens in the New York legal system as he defends himself against attempted rape allegatio

Viewpoints May 18, 2011

So it has come to this. Pakistani authorities miffed about the U.S. raid that killed Osama bin Laden leak the name of the CIA station chief to the Islamabad press corps.Pakistan is all for the red, white and blue until the check comes through. If there were ever a signal about the time to part ways, this is it.Prime Minister Yousuf Raza “Tumbleweed” Gilani was upset anyone would imply his country’

Viewpoints May 17, 2011

The wave of democracy that swept across the Arab world beginning in January appears to have dissipated. Most countries in the Middle East and North Africa remain under the rule of governments that are anything but democratic. In Tunisia and Egypt, where revolutions succeeded in removing long-time despotic leaders, there are uncertainties about whether liberal constitutional democracy can actually

Viewpoints May 17, 2011

The United States is sitting on a vast, untapped economic development tool that has received too little notice: our children.Investing in children before they enter school pays dividends, and yet child care subsidies are at risk as Congress mulls questions about how to reduce the federal deficit. Before you tune this out as the same old “it’s for the kids” chorus, consider:― Children in high-quali

Viewpoints May 17, 2011

The day after House Speaker John Boehner demanded trillions in budget cuts in exchange for raising the debt ceiling, Senate Democrats offered him a small down payment Tuesday: a plan to cut $21 billion in unneeded federal subsidies to the extraordinarily profitable oil industry.Not surprisingly, Republicans quickly labeled the proposal a tax increase and declined to provide any support, probably d

Viewpoints May 16, 2011

The symptoms of sub-par English education are often discussed in the pages of this paper, but I’ve yet to read an accurate description of the cause. The cause of the lack of quality teachers is simply government interference in the marketplace, and specifically the preposterous restrictions, and poisonous regulations discouraging native English speakers from coming to Korea to teach, produce, and

Viewpoints May 16, 2011

Let’s call it Boehner’s Law: When you issue an ultimatum, make sure that whatever you’re threatening really is ... the ultimate. In that spirit, House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, says Republicans need to see trillions of dollars in spending cuts in exchange for letting the Obama administration raise the nation’s debt limit.Hair-on-fire Democrats react that it’s perilous to delay upping the debt

Viewpoints May 15, 2011

The Bangladesh Supreme Court has upheld the High Court’s verdict that professor Yunus’s removal from Grameen Bank is legal. So professor Yunus has been permanently removed as the managing director of his brainchild, Grameen Bank. This is a sad day for Bangladesh. The decision will embolden those who had always opposed professor Yunus, such as the religious fundamentalists and others opposed to wom

Viewpoints May 15, 2011

All in.That’s essentially the message Treasurer Wayne Swan is sending about Australia’s odds-defying bet on Chinese growth. The government’s latest budget pledges to deliver the quickest improvement in the nation’s finances on record ― without specifics about how that will happen.The absence of such detail is telling and can be boiled down to one thing: an even bigger gamble on China’s 10 percent

Viewpoints May 15, 2011

The government appears to be promoting a merger between Woori Finance Holdings Co. and KDB Financial Group to create a “mega bank” with assets exceeding 500 trillion won ($458 billion), roughly half of the nation’s gross domestic product.The Public Fund Oversight Committee, which is tasked with recouping taxpayers’ money used to bail out distressed companies, will convene on May 17 to restart the

Editorial May 13, 2011

Korea Railroad Corp. has finally addressed growing public concern about the safety of its accident-prone KTX bullet trains. KORAIL said Thursday it would reduce operations of its high-speed trains for a comprehensive safety check. A day earlier, it ordered Hyundai Rotem to recall all of the 19 KTX-Sancheon trains in operation for thorough inspection. The recall order came after inspectors found de

Editorial May 13, 2011

Apple introduced its Macintosh computer in 1984 with a now-famous Super Bowl commercial that showed a lone rebel striking out against Big Brother. So it was ironic that researchers recently accused the company of an Orwellian intrusion into consumer privacy: Its iPhones and iPads appeared to be tracking their users’ movements. Apple eventually offered a rebuttal, and it hustled out a software upda

Viewpoints May 13, 2011