The Korea Herald

Twitter can start a party but can’t keep it going

ViewpointsOct 9, 2011

Social media is the new forum for free speech ― and its suppression. Whether coordinating large protests in Cairo and Tunis or flash mobs in Birmingham and London, social media have proved in recent months that they are capable of disturbing business as usual. Governments, in response, are selective
[J. Bradford DeLong] A free lunch for America

ViewpointsOct 9, 2011

BERKELEY ― Former U.S. Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers had a good line at the International Monetary Fund meetings this year: governments, he said, are trying to treat a broken ankle when the patient is facing organ failure. Summers was criticizing Europe’s focus on the second-order issue of Gre
Watch out for Putin, and Russia

ViewpointsOct 9, 2011

The news itself was hardly startling. It has been increasingly clear during the last year that the Regent (Vladimir Putin) would recover the throne from the Dauphin (Dmitry Medvedev). But now that it seems a certainty that Russia is headed for (at least) 12 more years of Putinism, alarm bells ought
The scapegoating of Amanda Knox

ViewpointsOct 9, 2011

Amanda Knox is nothing if not a good story. The pretty young American who headed to Italy for her junior year abroad, fell for an Italian boy and then landed in the dock with him, accused, convicted and then exonerated on charges of murdering another young woman in a sex game gone wild.Knox was neve
[Dominique Moisi] The nemesis of Turkish power

ViewpointsOct 9, 2011

PARIS ― A few days ago, Turkey’s Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoan told Al Jazeera, the pan-Arab television network, that he would use his warships to prevent Israeli commandos from again boarding Gaza-bound ships, as they did last year. And in a speech in Cairo, he declared support for the United
[Editorial] Brace for the worst

EditorialOct 7, 2011

The nation’s foreign exchange reserves fell by a margin of $8.8 billion to $303.3 billion between the end of August and the end of September, the largest drop since November 2008. The decline, government officials say, resulted mainly from the weakening value of assets held in euros and pounds.There
[Editorial] Post-court ruling action

EditorialOct 7, 2011

With Lone Star Funds found guilty of stock-price manipulation, the Financial Services Commission is set to take post-ruling measures, including ordering the Texas-based private equity firm to dispose of the stake it holds in Korea Exchange Bank in excess of a 10 percent stake.In a retrial ordered by
[William Pesek] Sex gap isn’t just stupid, it squanders billions

ViewpointsOct 7, 2011

Paul Hogan’s reptile-wrestling tough guy from the 1986 movie “Crocodile Dundee” typified Australia’s reputation for “mateship,” a creed of male friendship that often excludes women. A quarter of a century on, it’s costing the country billions. Don’t take my word for it ― take the prime minister’s. “
[David Ignatius] Drone strategies against al-Qaida

ViewpointsOct 7, 2011

WASHINGTON ― Here’s the trickiest counterterrorism puzzle for U.S. policymakers: How do you stop al-Qaida from attacking the American homeland, without getting bogged down in protracted wars against insurgents? One answer would be to establish deterrence in the long war against Islamic extremis
Digitized textbooks key to educational future

ViewpointsOct 7, 2011

Change does not always come easy. It often comes with the sacrifice of people whose livelihoods depend on the old way of things and against the influence of the powerful who are heavily invested in keeping the status-quo. However, sometimes change is not an option but rather a challenge a nation sho
Find common ground with Okinawa on Futenma

ViewpointsOct 7, 2011

The issue of relocating the U.S. Marine Corps’ Futenma Air Station in Okinawa Prefecture cannot be delayed any further.How can we avoid a situation in which the air station will remain where it is? The central government must talk with the Okinawa prefectural government earnestly and search for comm
[Andrew Sheng] European debt crisis: IMF as enforcer of last resort

ViewpointsOct 7, 2011

Travelling in Europe before the IMF Annual Meetings in Washington D.C., there was an air of worsening crisis. A series of bad news fed the fear factor. Shortly after the Swiss National Bank intervened in the Swiss franc, a UBS rogue trader was charged with losing 2.3 billion euros in unauthorized tr
[Editorial] R&D efficiency

EditorialOct 6, 2011

In recent years, Korea’s R&D investment by both public and private sectors has increased sharply. The incumbent government has been keen to boost R&D spending under the so-called “Science and Technology 577 Plan,” which calls for increasing the nation’s R&D investment to 5 percent of GDP by 2012 and
[Editorial] Boost for software industry

EditorialOct 6, 2011

Lee Suk-chae, chairman of KT Corp., one of Korea’s leading telecom operators, has recently surprised domestic software developers by announcing that it will reform its predatory software procurement practices. His reform initiative deserves attention as it could revitalize the domestic software indu
[Trudy Rubin] As world turned, we became our own worst enemies

ViewpointsOct 6, 2011

These days, any assessment of American foreign policy seems to circle back to whether we can get our act together at home.This country cannot command respect overseas when its domestic politicians act like irresponsible children. The world looks agog at our paralyzed Congress. A sagging superpower u