When she was 22, the future Jacqueline Kennedy won a Vogue contest with an essay in which she dreamed of being “a sort of Overall Art Director of the Twentieth Century.” As first lady, she proved herself a genius at visual persuasion. She crafted her own image, refined her husband’s, re-created the White House’s, and even shaped America’s abroad.Her most evocative and enduring image-making came when John F. Kennedy was assassinated, 50 years ago this week. She art-directed the funeral’s pageantr

Viewpoints Nov. 22, 2013

PARIS ― The U.S. has accepted a proposal by Libyan Prime Minister Ali Zeidan to train as many as 7,000 conventional Libyan soldiers plus counterterrorist forces. What an exceedingly bad idea. This could put the Obama administration’s Hope-and-Change bus on the road to a potential new fiasco in Libya. Think Benghazi ― except everywhere.Speaking at the Reagan Presidential Library in California last week, the man who led the mission to kill Osama bin Laden, Admiral William McRaven of the U.S. Speci

Viewpoints Nov. 21, 2013

The government is rolling up its sleeves to reform state-run corporations as their lax management despite excessive indebtedness is causing public anger. In her budget speech at the National Assembly on Monday, President Park Geun-hye pledged to reform the public sector. Referring to the glaring instances of managerial laxity at public agencies exposed during the parliamentary audit period, Park said the government would ensure that such practices are not repeated.She also said the government wo

Editorial Nov. 20, 2013

The revised law on executive compensation disclosure is taking effect Nov. 29 to improve corporate transparency and protect shareholders’ rights. But questions are being raised about its effectiveness as it has loopholes. The current compensation disclosure rule is too lax. Under it, a listed company is only obligated to disclose two things ― the total and average amount of compensation it pays to its “registered” directors. A registered director is an inside director who is also a board member.

Viewpoints Nov. 20, 2013

The world appeared to change on Nov. 15, the day bold and epochal reforms were unveiled that promised to overhaul one of the world’s biggest economies. Analysts, investors and historians alike rejoiced at the audacity of the plan.That was Japan. On Nov. 15, 2012, Shinzo Abe, then one month away from becoming prime minister, pledged “unlimited” stimulus and the kind of supply-side policies for which investors had long been clamoring. A year later, the buzz is gone, and not a single structural ref

Viewpoints Nov. 20, 2013

Are some people destined for success, or is the whole idea of destiny a myth, a comforting tale that we tell ourselves? When artists or political leaders become household names, are they just lucky?You might think that the Beatles, probably the most successful popular musicians in the last 50 years, were bound to succeed. But an astonishing new book, “Tune In,” by Mark Lewisohn, suggests otherwise. Without explicitly saying so, Lewisohn’s narrative raises the possibility that without breaks, coi

Viewpoints Nov. 20, 2013

As historians and journalists downgrade the legacy of President John F. Kennedy on the 50th anniversary of his death this week, ordinary citizens around the globe will remember a cherished figure.More than all but the greatest U.S. presidents ― George Washington, Abraham Lincoln and Franklin D. Roosevelt ― Kennedy is an icon of American political culture. Yet, as New York Times Executive Editor Jill Abramson observed recently, there has never been a major historical work on the Kennedy presidenc

Viewpoints Nov. 20, 2013

Twelve days are left until the National Assembly is constitutionally obligated to approve the 2014 budget bill. There are many other bills that the administration would like the legislature to pass before it closes its current 100-day regular session on Dec. 10, as scheduled.This is not to say the regular session cannot be extended. On the contrary, it will probably need an extension, with little progress being made in the budgetary process. Barring a sudden breakthrough in the impasse, the best

Editorial Nov. 19, 2013

Chung Joon-yang, chairman and chief executive officer of POSCO, offered to resign last Friday. He did so well ahead of the expiry of his term in office, which had been set for February 2015.But the news did not come as a surprise. Nor would anyone have believed him when he said he was under “no outside pressure” when he decided to step down when the next shareholders’ meeting was held next March.The days of his stay in office were numbered when Park Geun-hye was elected president in December. Ch

Editorial Nov. 19, 2013

On Feb. 15, a 13,000-ton rock plunged through the skies above Chelyabinsk, Russia. It shone 30 times brighter than the sun, and hurtled at 68,000 kilometers per hour toward a city of more than a million people.As the rock broke apart during its fiery descent, it dispersed energy equivalent to 500 kilotons of TNT, shattering thousands of windows. Some 1,500 people were injured, and shock waves caused a ribbon of damage extending 88 kilometers on either side of the meteor’s path. Witnesses thought

Viewpoints Nov. 19, 2013