This week, we have news reports revealing two significant statistics. One has it that Korea is to achieve $1 trillion in annual two-way trade volume this week. The other is not so encouraging: the nation’s total household debt is expected to hit 1,000 trillion won by 2013 ― roughly equivalent to $1 trillion.These two figures are of course not directly related to each other in economics. Yet, they are related to the general perception among Koreans regarding how far they have come through the pas

During the financial crisis of 2008, German Chancellor Angela Merkel met Nicolas Sarkozy for a private lunch in the Paris house of Sarkozy’s wife, Carla Bruni. This gesture of friendship didn’t keep the French president from using a news conference shortly thereafter to harangue Merkel for refusing to supplement a 130 billion euro ($175 billion) spending program proposed by the European Union with an additional German spending program. When asked how their countries were reacting to the crisis,

The Federal Reserve’s efforts to help dollar-starved European banks have pleased global investors, but the central bank’s moves can only temporarily distract attention from a dilemma back home: what to do about the exceedingly weak U.S. recovery. Lately, the patient has shown tentative signs of improvement. Today, the Labor Department announced that the unemployment rate fell to 8.6 percent in November, the lowest since March 2009. Nonfarm employers added 120,000 jobs. Pending home sales are up.

KAIST plays a critical role in Korea as a trendsetter for the nation in the sciences. Innovations at KAIST quickly become innovations throughout Korea. It was a tremendous breakthrough when Professor Robert Laughlin of Stanford was appointed president of KAIST, bringing a new international emphasis to the institution. KAIST set a precedent through that appointment of hiring foreign faculty that impacted the entire nation. The decision by President Suh Nam-pyo of KAIST to employ English as the pr

A major financial crisis is brewing, brought on by a toxic combination of failing European sovereign governments and highly leveraged international banks, which could be affected by a breakup of the euro area. In the weeks and months ahead, a major U.S. financial institution may face serious trouble, and government officials will have to decide whether that trouble is just a temporary lack of liquidity ― or a far more serious question of solvency. In the original lender-of-last-resort formulatio

An aide to a lawmaker of the ruling party is suspected of being behind cyber attacks that crashed the computer systems of the National Election Commission and the liberal candidate for Seoul mayor on the day of the Oct. 26 by-election. The lawmaker, who denies involvement, says he would resign from his post if proven otherwise.As he claims, Rep. Choi Koo-sik of the ruling Grand National Party may not be involved in the distributed denial-of-service, or DDoS, attacks, which shut down the websites

Burma is one of the few countries to which Pyongyang exports its arms and military technology. But the Southeast Asian country is most likely to downgrade its military ties with North Korea, though perhaps not sever them outright, to improve relations with the United States. During her visit to the Southeast Asian nation last week, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton reportedly called on the Burmese leaders to discontinue military cooperation with North Korea, which is suspected of pr

Wake up, America, you are being exploited, duped and brainwashed. Though political analysts ― left and right ― differ on their prescriptions on how to save America from decline, there is one thing they seem to agree on: The vast majority of Americans spend most of their lives politically asleep.Crossroads GPS, an advocacy group founded by Republican operative Karl Rove, recently produced a commercial called “Wake Up,” an anti-Obama attack ad that portrays a woman tossing and turning in the middl

“Mom, I really want to go to the costume play this weekend, you know I am really, really into it. Until now I hung around just watching the festival but this is my first time ever joining it. I’ve bought everything for that day, a violet wig, pink dress, kill-heels. Mom, can I go? Please...”“No.”Last week when I caught a glimpse of the evening news, I instantly froze on the spot. The anchor told a story about a murder case, which may be something that we are usually immune to, but it hit home in

A recent trip to New Delhi and Kolkata (formerly Calcutta) for a meeting of the executive committee of the World Federation of U.N. Associations served as a reminder to me that India is developing at a breathtaking pace economically, politically, and socially, and is becoming one of the most influential powers in the world. Its economy is growing at more than 7 percent annually; it has an advanced IT sector, a long cultural history and democratic strength. That development has been reflected in

Many important bills are gathering dust at the National Assembly as rival parties are still locked in a stand-off following the unilateral passage by the ruling Grand National Party of the Korea-U.S. free trade bill on Nov. 22. The emissions trade bill submitted by the government in April is one of them.The legislation aims to launch a greenhouse gas emissions trading system in 2015 to stimulate corporate efforts for emissions reduction. In 2009, the Korean government voluntarily declared it wou