The Korea Herald

Disasters in the centenary of WWI

Jul 22, 2014

NEW YORK ― Karl Marx famously wrote that history repeats itself, “the first time as tragedy, the second time as farce.” Yet when we look around nowadays, we can’t help but wonder whether tragedy will be followed by yet more tragedy. Here we are, at the centenary of the outbreak of World War I, and we find ourselves surrounded by cascading violence, duplicity, and cynicism of the very sort that brought the world to disaster in 1914. And the world regions involved then are involved again.WWI began
[Kim Seong-kon] Strange parts of Korean society

Jul 22, 2014

Foreigners often find it very convenient to live in Korea. For example, they can easily find numerous coffee shops, convenience stores and ethnic restaurants in major cities. They can also take advantage of Korea’s excellent quick delivery system that comes in handy when they want to send something to someone. They may also find Korea to be the most wired country on earth because Wi-Fi and Internet access are available virtually everywhere throughout the country. And they can use their cellphone
The inflation truther crank index

Jul 22, 2014

There is a group of folks who believe that inflation is much higher than the numbers in the official reports. Paul Krugman calls them “inflation truthers.”In the 2000s, I might have been considered part of that crowd. I recognized that inflation data weren’t being reported accurately, and said as much. I coined the phrase “inflation ex-inflation’’ to show the absurdity of reporting inflation data without food and energy prices, which were rising fast then. Owner’s equivalent rent, hedonic adjust
[David Ignatius] The risk of sanctions on Russia

Jul 21, 2014

WASHINGTON ― Energy politics underlie the explosive Ukraine crisis, as Europeans weigh U.S. calls for tougher sanctions against the ability of Russia to disrupt gas supplies this winter. The dilemma for European governments increased this week, as the Obama administration announced strong new penalties against the Russian energy and financial sectors. Europe’s initial response was tepid, in a sign that many of its governments fear Moscow’s energy leverage more than U.S. displeasure. The Russians
Malaysia can’t botch another air tragedy

Jul 21, 2014

There’s nothing funny about Malaysia Airlines losing two Boeing 777s and more than 500 lives in the space of four months. That hasn’t kept the humor mills from churning out dark humor and lighting up cyberspace.Actor Jason Biggs, for example, got in trouble for tweeting: “Anyone wanna buy my Malaysia Airlines frequent flier miles?” A passenger supposedly among the 298 people aboard Flight 17 that was shot down over eastern Ukraine on Thursday uploaded a photo of the doomed plane on Facebook just
[Jeffrey Frankel] U.S. court rulings to undermine debt restructuring

Jul 21, 2014

Argentina and its bankers have been barred from making payments to fulfill debt-restructuring agreements reached with the country’s creditors, unless the 7 percent of creditors who rejected the agreements are paid in full ― a judgment that is likely to stick, now that the U.S. Supreme Court has upheld it. Though it is hard to cry for Argentina, the ruling in favor of the holdouts is bad news for the global financial system and sets back the evolution of the international regime for restructuring
China is driving the BRICS train

Jul 21, 2014

Rarely has an acronym led such a charmed life as BRICS. Casually invented by former Goldman Sachs Group Inc. economist and Bloomberg View columnist Jim O’Neill to label emerging markets of promise, it actually brought together leaders from the disparate countries of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. Last week in Brazil, they took a decisive step toward building institutions that could plausibly challenge the long geopolitical and economic ascendancy of the West. The New Development
Intelligence agencies should prove value of technology

Jul 21, 2014

A newly leaked document stolen by former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden last year reveals that one of the NSA’s partner agencies within the “Five Eyes” Anglo-intelligence network ― Britain’s Government Communications Headquarters, responsible for signals intelligence ― dedicated vast resources to fooling around on the Internet, according to journalist Glenn Greenwald. The GCHQ has reportedly developed tools capable of playing with the results of online polls; sending out spoo
[Robert J. Shiller] Booming until it hurts?

Jul 20, 2014

NEW HAVEN ― In recent months, concern has intensified among the world’s financial experts and news media that overheated asset markets ― real estate, equities, and long-term bonds ― could lead to a major correction and another economic crisis. The general public seems unbothered: Google Trends shows some pickup in the search term “stock market bubble,” but it is not at its peak 2007 levels, and “housing bubble” searches are relatively infrequent.But the experts’ concern is notable and healthy, b
What to fear if China crashes

Jul 20, 2014

Few moments in modern financial history were scarier than the week of Sept. 15, 2008, when first Lehman Brothers and then American International Group collapsed. Who could forget the cratering stock markets, panicky bailout negotiations, rampant foreclosures, depressing job losses and decimated retirement accounts ― not to mention the discouraging recovery since then?Yet a Chinese crash might make 2008 look like a garden party. As the risks of one increase, it’s worth exploring how it might look
[Said A. Arjomand] Rouhani’s U.S. dependence in remaking Iran

Jul 20, 2014

TEHRAN ― Iranian President Hassan Rouhani recently marked the end of his first year in office not only with smiles, but also with further evidence of his efforts at domestic reform and geostrategic reorientation. In Iran’s case, these two imperatives have long gone hand in hand.Rouhani now says that Iran would be willing to work with the United States in Iraq. The dire threat to both Iranian and U.S. interests posed by the Islamic State (formerly the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria) has, evident
Obama’s foreign policy echoes Nixon’s

Jul 20, 2014

Don’t like President Obama’s foreign policy? Blame President Richard M. Nixon. Just don’t hold your breath waiting for the former to acknowledge the influence of the latter, even as we approach the 40th anniversary next month of Nixon’s resignation.In a recent commencement address at the U.S. Military Academy, Obama was quick to quote Dwight D. Eisenhower (“War is mankind’s most tragic and stupid folly”) and to reference John F. Kennedy (“At the height of the Cold War, (he) spoke about the need
How to fight unhealthy air pollution? Eat your broccoli

Jul 20, 2014

If you live in a region with lots of air pollution, you might not always breathe easy. So it might help to sit back, relax and enjoy a helping or two of broccoli.Better yet, have a stiff cup of broccoli-sprout tea.It might not be the advice you expect to protect yourself from pollution.But a study that Thomas Kensler and his team began at Johns Hopkins University and completed at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine found that a molecule generated during broccoli consumption, and with
[David Ignatius] U.S. foreign policy shortcomings

Jul 18, 2014

WASHINGTON ― When Attorney General Eric Holder says that the Islamic State that has taken root in Iraq and Syria poses a “deadly” threat, and that he has “extreme, extreme concern” about its bomb makers, that sounds like an emergency. Yet the Obama administration hasn’t settled on a coordinated, aggressive response that might prevent this inferno from spreading. The delay in framing a credible plan for stopping the Islamic State is part of a larger worry about President Obama’s foreign policy. E
The German-American breakup

Jul 18, 2014

When President Barack Obama spoke in July 2008 in Berlin near the Brandenburg Gate, he told a rapturous German audience that peace and progress “require allies who will listen to each other, learn from each other and, most of all, trust each other.” It was supposed to be the opposite of George W. Bush’s cowboy diplomacy, which alienated the Federal Republic of Germany and much of Europe. Yet six years later, relations between Washington and Berlin are more mistrustful than ever.The main problem