The ruling Saenuri Party’s ill-prepared commitment to child care is backfiring ahead of the upcoming parliamentary elections. But the main opposition Democratic United Party finds itself in no position to feel schadenfreude. Its election pledges for welfare are a target of public criticism as well.The ruling party’s predicament dates back to August, when it promised to provide subsidies for child care. It did so without seriously considering the administration’s budget constraints and the shaky

Syria’s crisis is now a year old, with close to 10,000 people, mostly civilians, dead -- and no end in sight. The country is at a stalemate: the opposition is unable to topple President Bashar al-Assad’s regime, and Assad’s forces are unable to quash the resistance.Both sides are adamant: the opposition is determined to bring down a regime that it views as illegitimate, sectarian, corrupt, tyrannical, and stained with blood, while the regime’s hard-line core believes that by persevering it will

Politicians, even those who vilify corporate America, inevitably laud small businesses. They are right to appreciate the enormous role that entrepreneurship plays in the U.S. economy, but it’s not clear how much public policy can do to conjure up entrepreneurs. Last week, with broad support, the Senate passed an amended version of the Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act (or the JOBS Act). Because the bill had already been passed by the House on March 8, and is supported by the White House, it se

As much as we’d like to see the U.S. Supreme Court allow the entire federal health-care law to stand, it’s perfectly possible that, when it rules in a few months, the court will toss the whole thing. If it finds that the individual mandate, the requirement that Americans either have insurance or pay a penalty, is unconstitutional, the court may also decide the rest of the law is so inextricably tied to it, everything must go. That would bring the nation back to square one on health-care reform.

Syria’s crisis is now a year old, with close to 10,000 people, mostly civilians, dead -- and no end in sight. The country is at a stalemate: the opposition is unable to topple President Bashar al-Assad’s regime, and Assad’s forces are unable to quash the resistance.Both sides are adamant: the opposition is determined to bring down a regime that it views as illegitimate, sectarian, corrupt, tyrannical, and stained with blood, while the regime’s hard-line core believes that by persevering it will

If you think you will have your day in court when aggrieved by civil injustice, think again. More likely, you will be headed for a meeting run by a professional arbitrator. Ironically, the U.S. Supreme Court is to blame. It is leading a quiet transformation by moving the country from using public court trials to secret arbitration hearings.Justice in a court of law emphasizes fairness, using costly traditional practices: impartial juries, trained judges, media-saturated trials open to the public

The G20 is at a crossroads and the world is watching. A lack of continuity, legitimacy and credibility are shadowing the G20 in 2012. This year’s Los Cabos Summit takes place only seven months after the Cannes Summit, yet it has a very ambitious agenda: green growth. Last year’s agenda was hijacked by European crisis management. This time, green growth has been criticized as having a lack of clarity in terms of where it is leading to.On the topic of economics and finance, a financial inclusion,

The Fair Trade Commission has toughened its regulation on related-party transactions among subsidiaries of chaebol groups in a bid to expand business opportunities for small and medium-sized enterprises.Under the new rule, which is to apply starting April 1, a company belonging to a business group with aggregate assets exceeding 5 trillion won is required to obtain prior approval from the board of directors when it places an order valued at 5 billion won or more with a sister affiliate. Presentl

Leung Chun-ying, a former adviser of the Hong Kong government and property consultant, was declared winner of the election as the Chinese city’s next chief executive. He won 689 votes from a 1,200-member election committee composed mainly by pro-Beijing business leaders and other elites.Given the circumstances, Leung ran a clever race. He first worked hard to build up public support by announcing policy proposals popular among the general public such as increasing social housing, despite the alm

When the price of gasoline rises, the supply of hot air expands.Just look at the recent GOP attacks blaming President Obama for prices that exceed $4 a gallon in some parts of the country.Not only is Obama responsible, according to some Republicans, he’s downright pleased. As Mitt Romney put it last week to Fox News, “There’s no question that when he ran for office, he said he wanted to see gasoline prices go up.”But there are some problems with Romney’s statement. First, it’s false. Obama never

The state-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council is drafting its funding plan for the 12th Five-Year Plan (2011-15) period and proposing to subsidize five energy companies and two power grid companies. It will not be the first time that the electrical power industry has received such a financial subsidy. But the question is: can such cash injections really contribute to the development of China’s power industry? The losses from the thermal power generation bu

The presidential office must be on edge as it faces two high-profile investigations at the same time. One concerns the cyberattack last October on the website of the National Election Commission while the other is about illegal surveillance of a civilian.On Monday, an independent counsel started a probe into the NEC website attack that took place on Oct. 26, the day Seoul mayoral by-election was held. A massive distributed denial-of-service attack brought the election watchdog’s website down, ma

Call it musical chairs with Chinese characteristics. The number of seats remains the same, but a player gets eliminated instead.Bo Xilai’s ouster as leader of Chongqing two weeks ago, a result of his top aide’s asylum dash to a U.S. consulate, might have snuffed out his chances of a promotion in the Chinese Communist Party. But it has brightened the prospects of almost every single one of his rivals.“The removal of any major player releases pressure on others because there are just so few seats