The Korea Herald

[Dick Polman] Mr. President, try the Truman approach

ViewpointsAug 23, 2011

An unsolicited memo to Barack Obama:Mr. President, can you speak Truman? If you want to stay in office beyond 2012, you need to channel his language.Enough, already, with all your overtures to the Republicans. Why bother trying to extend your hand to people whose primal impulse is to devour it? You
[Aristides N. Hatzis] From Athens to Seoul

ViewpointsAug 23, 2011

This was my first visit to South Korea and the instant reaction was pure astonishment. From Seoul, the imposing and enchanting metropolis, to Jeju Island, the magnificent tropical paradise, everything seemed so different from Western Europe and North America. The differences with my country, Greece,
Should all school kids get free meals?

Aug 22, 2011

As Seoul prepares to vote ...Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon campaigns ahead of the school meals referendum slated for August 24. (Yonhap News)A rocky road to a controversial voteAfter months of political dispute, Seoul citizens will decide on free school meals in a vote on Wednesday. The referendum will ask
Readers’ VOICE

Aug 22, 2011

On school meals ...It should be subjective. Children who come from families of a low income should be able to get lunch in school for free. Those who come from higher income families should have to pay. How you decide what is high and low, I don’t know. But having a blanket system is just populist,
[Robert Reich] Health care law and Medicare

ViewpointsAug 22, 2011

Two appellate judges in Atlanta ― one appointed by Bill Clinton and one by George H.W. Bush ― have just decided the Constitution doesn’t allow the federal government to require individuals to buy health insurance.The decision is a major defeat for the White House. The so-called “individual mandate”
[Michal Levertov] Can protests bring Jews, Arabs together in Israel?

ViewpointsAug 22, 2011

HURFEISH, Israel ― The Druze village of Hurfeish seems as pastoral as the rural north of Israel can be. Sitting on the northwestern slope of the Meron Mountains amid a national park, the centuries-old settlement of about 6,000 residents looks like an image taken from a tourist postcard: green, beaut
[Editorial] Kim Jong-il in Russia

EditorialAug 22, 2011

It does not take genius to guess why North Korean leader Kim Jong-il is visiting Russia. Kim desperately needs economic aid, with his country gripped by a chronic food crisis, which has been aggravated by recent floods.Also of great concern to Pyongyang watchers is whether or not he is attempting to
[Editorial] Business lobby’s fate

EditorialAug 22, 2011

On Aug. 16, the Federation of Korean Industries, the lobby for big enterprises, turned 50 ― the age at which it, were it a person, should “know the will of heaven.” In Confucian philosophy, those aged 50 are thought to be old enough to understand their destiny as mandated by heaven.But the FKI is no
[Nathan Myhrvold] Society: Descended from apes, acting as slime molds

ViewpointsAug 22, 2011

As we lurch from one high-stakes political drama to another, it is natural to wonder why societies aren’t better at avoiding self-inflicted crises. Here in the U.S. earlier this month, the government barely dodged default, even though economists reached consensus months ago on when the debt limit wo
[Laurence Kotlikoff] U.S. government merits a junk credit rating

ViewpointsAug 22, 2011

Politicians and investors say Standard & Poor’s made a mistake when it cut the U.S.’s credit rating from “AAA” to “AA+.” I agree. I wonder why S&P didn’t take it all the way down to “CCC.” The country’s political leaders, from President Barack Obama on down, are alternately decrying S&P’s hubris and
[Stephen L. Carter] Baseball, Tim Pawlenty and celebrity politics

ViewpointsAug 22, 2011

You might have missed the news that several courthouse guards are being investigated for accepting autographed baseballs from Roger Clemens, one of the greatest pitchers of the modern era, after his mistrial on charges of lying under oath about steroid use. This might seem like a minor offense, but
[Rachel Marsden] Could London riots happen in U.S.?

ViewpointsAug 21, 2011

The riots that have ravaged urban England take root in phenomena that aren’t exclusive to that country but are increasingly on the rise everywhere. Could the same thing happen in America? Of course it could. And here’s why.The acute social breakdown sparked by a single police killing of a perp who h
[Editorial] Health care case a good moment for judicial restraint

ViewpointsAug 21, 2011

For about the first third of the 20th century, the U.S. Supreme Court was under the sway of a doctrine called “substantive due process.” The court routinely invoked this (and the related concept of “freedom of contract”) to overturn laws attempting to regulate business on matters such as working con
[Editorial] Athletics meet in Daegu

EditorialAug 21, 2011

The world’s athletics enthusiasts have only five days to wait before the start of the IAAF World Championships in Daegu. The world’s premier track-and-field competition is set to open on Aug. 27 in Daegu for a nine-day run until Sept. 4.Some 2,500 of the world’s greatest athletes from more than 200
[Editorial] Estate tax relief for SMEs

EditorialAug 21, 2011

The government is seeking to ease the tax burden associated with generational business succession at small and medium-sized family enterprises. Baek Yong-ho, policy planning chief at Cheong Wa Dae, told a meeting of SME executives on Thursday that the government has set out to introduce the German m