Long and variable lags. That’s all I could think of when I read the Federal Reserve statement and learned that economic conditions “are likely to warrant exceptionally low levels for the federal funds rate at least through late 2014.” My first instinct was to mark the date on my household calendar, but I couldn’t find one that goes out that far! What the Fed is saying, in essence, is that as the economy improves, it’s appropriate to provide as much stimulus, or support, as it did in late 2008, w

Korea has been reasonably successful in hosting major world events such as the Olympic Games, the FIFA World Cup and even the 2011 World Athletics Championships in Daegu. Success in these affairs is generally measured by financial profitability with large numbers of participants and spectators and trouble-free proceedings. The 1988 Seoul Olympics, which were held after partial boycotts in 1980 and 1984, are remembered as having helped foment the end of the Cold War and introduced Korea as an eme

An ongoing racial dispute in Dallas, Texas, involving a Korean-American gas station owner and the local African-American community draws our concern for its possible impact on the life of the Korean immigrants in the area and elsewhere. Reasonable efforts should be made to prevent mistakes by individuals from causing unnecessary racial clashes.A Park, who runs a gas station and a convenience store in the predominantly black South Dallas, seems to have somewhat antagonized poorer customers for hi

CAIRO ― Last year’s events in Egypt and Tunisia drew the curtain on a tottering old order and delivered much of the Arab world into a long-awaited new era. But what that new era will look like remains very much an open question, given the many challenges that the region’s countries still face.The old order that has begun to vanish extends beyond the former regimes. The region’s entire value system ― a political culture forged by autocracy ― is being transformed. Arab men and women have shed the

As Egypt marked the first anniversary of the Jan. 25 civilian revolt that eventually toppled the 30-year rule of Hosni Mubarak, there was no agreement -- on how to celebrate or even whether rejoicing is in order.The current military rulers -- the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, or SCAF -- wanted to hold parades and aerial jet exhibitions to exult in the revolution, of which their main part was to ease Mubarak out of power. Youth groups and democracy activists who originally engineered the u

KABUL ― Recently, the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC) office in Kudoz province reported the rescue of a young woman who had been imprisoned in her in-laws’ dungeon for seven months. Fifteen-year-old Sahar Gul was forced to marry an older man who serves in the Afghan army. She was then kept in the dungeon by her husband’s family and brutally tortured for months, because she refused to work as a prostitute.Over the past 10 years, the AIHRC has received more than 19,000 complaint

The Korean economy grew at a disheartening rate of 3.6 percent last year, almost half the 2010 growth rate of 6.2 percent. Even gloomier is what is yet to come. Few private financial institutions and research institutes predict this year will be better than last year. Mostly culpable were the worsening external economic conditions. The Bank of Korea had to revise its 2011 outlook from the original 4.5 percent to 4.3 percent when the global economy showed few signs of an early recovery. It lowere

Choi See-joong, chairman of the Korea Communications Commission, tendered his resignation last Friday. His resignation came as criminal allegations were made against his former aide. However, he said at a news conference that he was resigning, not because he or his former aide did anything wrong, but because he was “physically and mentally exhausted.” But it was too early for Choi to claim innocence, as prosecutors are conducting or preparing to conduct inquiries into two corruption scandals inv

There seem to be as many political solutions to education problems in South Korea as there are people thinking about them. Thus, there is endless controversy about which policies should be implemented. A major reason for the controversy is the biggest difference between political and market-based polices: In politics, a situation that captures public attention is seen a problem or crisis; in the market, such situations are seen as opportunities.Some of the world’s greatest, boldest and most aggr