The Korea Herald

[Yang Sung-chul] ‘Long march’ lies ahead for Sino-American affairs

ViewpointsMar 14, 2011

Amid the unprecedented earthquake and tsunami tragedy in Japan, and Moammar Gadhafi and other dictators’ bloody last gasps to cling to power in the Middle East, the global power dynamics, too, are realigning, as new monikers such as G2 or “Chimerica” imply. U.S.-led world affairs such as U.N. Security Council resolutions, the U.N. Climate Change Conference, the WTO Doha Round or G20 financial refo
[Editorial] Judicial reform

ViewpointsMar 13, 2011

In February last year, the ruling Grand National Party and the main opposition Democratic Party agreed to resume efforts to reform the judiciary and the prosecution, a project that was promoted by lawmakers of the 17th National Assembly but has since been left on the back burner. The main impetus behind the latest legislative campaign was the two parties’ desire to correct what they saw as the pol
[Editorial] Quake in Japan

ViewpointsMar 13, 2011

A Herculean rescue and recovery operation is under way in Japan following Friday’s devastating earthquake and tsunami. The quake, which hit Japan’s northeastern coast, measured 9.0 in magnitude, the strongest ever recorded in that country. It triggered a ferocious, 10-meter tsunami that swept away everything in its path. To make matters worse, radiation leaked from a quake-damaged nuclear reactor
Beware risks ‘on the cloud’ in e-mail accounts

ViewpointsMar 13, 2011

Tens of thousands of Gmail users had a rude shock recently when they logged in only to find all their messages had vanished. Google has restored their e-mail from tape backup by this week, but the inadvertent deletion (during a software upgrade) must raise concerns over security and trust in applications that share remote databases beyond the control of individual users. There were no reports that
Harmony-breaking words from a U.S. official

ViewpointsMar 13, 2011

The assemblies of Okinawa Prefecture and two cities in the prefecture ― Naha and Urasoe ― on Tuesday unanimously adopted resolutions protesting comments by a U.S. official that allegedly disparaged the Okinawans. Other Okinawan assemblies will follow suit. In an off-the-record lecture in Washington in December before 14 students who were about to visit Tokyo and Okinawa, Kevin Maher, head of the o
[William Pesek] Prada gets my $1,500 as poor can live in envy

ViewpointsMar 13, 2011

In the annals of fashionable timing, Prada SpA’s trip to Asia deserves a mention. It’s blowing off Milan and taking the largest initial public offering of a family-owned Italian company since 2006 to Hong Kong. The reason investors in Prada’s hometown must reach 5,800 miles away to buy the stock: Asia’s hot, Europe’s not. It gets even better for Prada. The $2 billion IPO will hit the investment ca
[Shlomo Ben Ami] Saving the Egyptian revolution

ViewpointsMar 13, 2011

TEL AVIV ― Revolutions throughout history have proven to devour their children. Their final outcomes are seldom congruent with their prime movers’ intentions. Too frequently, revolutions are hijacked by a second wave, either more conservative or more radical than what was first contemplated by the initiators of change.What started in France in 1789 as an uprising of the middle classes in alliance
[Eric Jackson] Steve Jobs’s hottest app may be succession plan

ViewpointsMar 13, 2011

Apple Inc. suffers from a Steve Jobs discount, and it’s not fair.Ever since Jobs, the chief executive officer, disclosed that he had a rare form of pancreatic cancer in August 2004, Apple’s stock has been underpriced. That assertion may seem absurd, given that the shares have risen more than 2,000 percent since then and the company’s market value of $325 billion is second only to that of Exxon Mob
[Annette Heuser] Gadhafi’s end depends on one power stepping up

ViewpointsMar 13, 2011

The turmoil in much of the Arab world has grown into more than a regional protest by peoples seeking to overthrow repressive regimes. Successful uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt have spurred demonstrations from Morocco to Iran and now, tragically, conflict in Libya which increasingly looks like civil war.The criminal acts of that country’s leader, Moammar Gadhafi, demand foreign intervention. With t
[Brigitte Granville] Targeting the targeters in controlling inflation

ViewpointsMar 13, 2011

LONDON ― Speaking in the happier economic times of 2005, Mervyn King ― then, as now, governor of the Bank of England ― stressed the importance of entrenching public expectations of stable, low inflation. He warned that, “if you let inflation expectations drift too far away from the target, you can end up in quite serious difficulty with a costly process to bring them back again.” King must now be
It’s not time to tap the strategic oil reserve

ViewpointsMar 11, 2011

Whenever gasoline prices spike, it’s a pretty good bet that politicians are going to propose tapping the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. This time around, the talk started with Sen. Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M., chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, who last week urged President Obama to consider selling oil from the reserve as a way to stabilize prices. Then on Sunday, White House
[Editorial] Price stability

ViewpointsMar 11, 2011

The Bank of Korea raised its benchmark rate from 2.75 percent to 3 percent on Thursday. On the same day, President Lee Myung-bak promised a shift in policy from growth to price stability. It was better late than never for both the central bank and the Lee administration to renew their resolve to fight inflation.Following the rate increase, the Bank of Korea governor implied the central bank will t
[Editorial] Baby boomers

EditorialMar 11, 2011

It should not come as a surprise that many of the baby boomers, those born from 1955 to 1963, will face extreme financial difficulties when they go into retirement. They have not saved enough for retirement, into which they will start going in a couple of years. But not many realize what is in store for them.The number of baby boomers stands at 7 million, or 14 percent of the total population. Mos
Polarization likely to only worsen

ViewpointsMar 11, 2011

Individualism is dead.That’s the stark take-away from an analysis of U.S. congressional voting records by the National Journal.Since 1982, the National Journal has combed congressional votes on key issues and rated legislators’ records. Last year, it reviewed 95 significant votes in both chambers using a relative, not absolute, measure. In other words, it seeks to compare members with one another,
[Joseph E. Stiglitz] Mauritius miracle of social welfare

ViewpointsMar 11, 2011

NEW YORK ― Suppose someone were to describe a small country that provided free education through university for all of its citizens, transportation for school children, and free health care ― including heart surgery ― for all. You might suspect that such a country is either phenomenally rich or on the fast track to fiscal crisis.After all, rich countries in Europe have increasingly found that they