South Korea’s economy is in a tough spot. Too bad the monetary policy response has been so tame.The country is flirting with outright deflation, figures Tuesday showed, as consumer prices declined for the first time on record. Exports, which account for about 40 percent of gross domestic product, had slipped for 10 straight months. The Bank of Korea says the country will struggle to meet even lowered growth forecasts.BOK policymakers need to articulate a broad strategy to get inflation bac

Viewpoints Oct. 3, 2019

The fate of President Donald Trump rests with Republicans. So the hearing in the House of Representatives on Thursday about a whistleblower’s allegation of impropriety involving Trump’s interaction with the president of Ukraine provided a good chance to see what GOP lawmakers are thinking.　The answer is: They’re all over the place. And that’s bad news for the White House.There are plenty of good questions about how Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee grilled the

Viewpoints Sept. 30, 2019

Japan’s consumption-tax hike doesn’t look like it’s going to sink the economy, as a similar increase did five years ago. That’s the good news.　The bad news is that the bump, to 10 percent from 8 percent, is still happening at an inauspicious time. While a recession isn’t in the cards for Japan, the last thing any major economy needs is a fiscal brake.Twice Prime Minister Shinzo Abe shied away from the increase. No wonder: A jump in the tax was widely blamed for a re

Viewpoints Sept. 30, 2019

Even before House Speaker Nancy Pelosi pulled the trigger on an investigation into President Donald Trump’s dealings with Ukraine, there were fears and complaints that impeachment proceedings would dangerously compromise US foreign policy. Beyond just stifling the president’s communications with foreign leaders, wrote former Justice Department official John Yoo, Congress “would seize the upper hand in foreign affairs, which has produced disasters.”But there’s anothe

Viewpoints Sept. 29, 2019

US presidential candidate Joe Biden is about to learn an unpleasant lesson about Ukraine: Once you’ve stepped into the country’s politics, there’s no way to emerge unsullied. Recent developments suggest he’ll be fielding questions about a lot more than what President Donald Trump has already slung his way.Consider the case of Ukrainian billionaire Dmytro Firtash, which could play into one of the conservative blogosphere’s favorite obsessions: the idea that Ukraine p

Viewpoints Sept. 29, 2019

The UK Supreme Court’s ruling voiding Boris Johnson’s suspension of Parliament is one for the ages -- a landmark in British constitutional law of the kind that comes around only once every few centuries.The court’s judgment tried to downplay how astonishing its decision was. But the reality is that the unanimous court broke new ground in making the judiciary, not Parliament, the ultimate arbiter of constitutional legality in the UK. Although, the court said this case was a &ldq

Viewpoints Sept. 26, 2019

The German government’s 54 billion euro ($60 billion) climate deal, approved Friday after about 20 hours of overnight negotiations, is a typical product of the reluctant coalition run by Chancellor Angela Merkel: It achieves a balance of interests and little more. If German voters want a more ambitious plan, and there are indications that they do, they’ll have to wait until after the 2021 election.The package is an exercise in evenhandedness. It’s neutral from the budgetary poi

Viewpoints Sept. 23, 2019

A small squadron of drones -- and possibly cruise missiles -- penetrated Saudi Arabia’s air defenses on Saturday, laying waste to a significant, valuable portion of two of the world’s most essential oil processing facilities. Amid worries about the impact of the strikes on global oil markets and fears about broader military confrontations upending a region perennially vexed by crossed swords, ancient religious rifts, geopolitical maneuvering and greed, facts and conjecture began jock

Viewpoints Sept. 18, 2019

For years, thriving cities in coastal regions of the US have become increasingly expensive to live in. As cities such as San Francisco, New York City, Los Angeles and Seattle became more attractive, thanks to booming knowledge industries and falling crime, rents soared.And for almost as long, people have been hotly debating what to do about the problem. Many have called for an increase in housing construction, especially by loosening zoning laws and reducing the ability of legal challenges to ha

Viewpoints Sept. 18, 2019

President Donald Trump said his administration has reached an initial trade accord with Japan over tariffs and that he intends to enter into the agreement in coming weeks.In a notice to Congress on Monday, Trump also said the US will be entering an “executive agreement” with Japan over digital trade.There was no mention by Trump if he’ll end his threat to slap tariffs on Japanese auto imports as part of the trade deal.“My administration looks forward to continued collabor

International Sept. 17, 2019

The sad degradation of the US Department of Justice’s antitrust division continues. An agency charged with upholding the nation’s antitrust laws, without fear or favor, has become just another tool President Donald Trump uses to reward his friends and punish his enemies in corporate America.I don’t know how else you can characterize the news, reported by the Wall Street Journal on Friday, that the DOJ is investigating four major automakers that agreed to abide by California&rsq

Viewpoints Sept. 9, 2019

Last week, the European Space Agency reached out to warn Elon Musk’s Space Exploration Technologies that one of its satellites might collide with a SpaceX communications satellite. When ESA first raised such concerns in late August, the chances of a crash were 1 in 50,000; SpaceX had said then that it didn’t think the risk was high enough to justify action. Now the odds had narrowed to 1 in 1,000. Yet ESA received no reply.Eventually the space agency unilaterally moved its satellite

Viewpoints Sept. 9, 2019

Buried among the storylines about global trade and political intrigue from the G-7 summit last month is perhaps the most noteworthy one of all. Business for Inclusive Growth, or B4IG, a coalition of 34 multinational companies with more than 3 million employees and revenues topping $1 trillion, unveiled an initiative to tackle inequality with help from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.In its “pledge against inequalities,” the B4IG states what should be obvious

Viewpoints Sept. 4, 2019

When I headed the US Southern Command a decade ago, I took a trip to the Brazilian military’s jungle training site near Manaus in the Amazon River basin. I spent time both in the jungle with Brazilian troops and on the river, meeting with some of the 300 indigenous groups that populate the region, which spans nine South American nations. I came to understand that Brazilian pride in controlling much of the rain forest is palpable and well-deserved. Now, of course, that pride is being challe

Viewpoints Sept. 3, 2019

Some right-wing intellectuals believe that immigration harms US society by admitting people from cultures they consider inferior. The argument has a very old pedigree -- writing in 1896, Massachusetts Institute of Technology President Francis Walker warned against taking in “beaten men from beaten races.”This notion was always terribly wrong, and global economic development is offering added proof.In a recent interview, law professor Amy Wax reasserted a version of Walker’s hoa

Viewpoints Sept. 2, 2019