The Korea Herald

Cruz and Paul vie for fractured conservatives

Mar 24, 2014

Two newcomers, Senators Rand Paul of Kentucky and Ted Cruz of Texas, are the hottest figures in the dominant conservative wing of the Republican Party. In markedly different ways, they both claim to be the heirs to the party’s contemporary patron saint, Ronald Reagan.In a short time, these first-term lawmakers have electrified elements of the party’s base and rattled the Senate establishment. The top two Republican leaders in the chamber, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky and John Cornyn of Texas, hav
[Andrew Cockburn] Why sanctions don’t really work

Mar 24, 2014

In 1919, after allied sanctions on food shipments had starved the Kaiser’s Germany into submission, President Woodrow Wilson endorsed the continued use of sanctions to settle international disputes as an “economic, peaceful, silent, deadly remedy.” Almost a century later, the weapon is more popular than ever, mostly because of a wholly mistaken belief that it makes the targets do what we want. Currently, the United States is enforcing no fewer than 24 separate sanctions regimes directed at targe
The Beatles 50 years late: All you need is love, and a lasting legacy

Mar 24, 2014

LONGVIEW, Washington ― Fifty years after their first appearance in the United States seems an adequate amount of time to assess the cultural and musical legacy of the Beatles. The 15-year-old girls from Brooklyn and Queens who shrieked and swooned at first sight of them on “The Ed Sullivan Show” were last seen cashing Social Security checks. Hey, they’re 65. When they swoon these days, concerned relatives call 911.It’s been a while.And it bears remembering that it’s always been presumed the Beat
[Robert J. Shiller] The global economy’s tale risks

Mar 24, 2014

TOKYO ― Fluctuations in the world’s economies are largely due to the stories we hear and tell about them. These popular, emotionally relevant narratives sometimes inspire us to go out and spend, start businesses, build new factories and office buildings, and hire employees; at other times, they put fear in our hearts and impel us to sit tight, save our resources, curtail spending, and reduce risk. They either stimulate our “animal spirits” or muffle them.Visiting Japan on a speaking tour, I am s
Goodbye, flexible work arrangements

Mar 24, 2014

Millions of salaried workers may soon lose flexibility in how they work. President Barack Obama plans to cover them under federal overtime regulations. This won’t raise their pay. It will, however, effectively convert them into hourly workers ― putting the kibosh on the flexible work arrangements many employees value.Hourly employees get paid time-and-a-half for working more than 40 hours a week. However, under the “white collar exemption,” businesses can pay many salaried employees for getting
[Giles Merritt] The Post-Russian world order

Mar 23, 2014

BRUSSELS ― Russia’s intervention in Ukraine and the ensuing Crimea crisis is wrongly seen as the start of Cold War II. But, while the fallout from Russian President Vladimir Putin’s defiance of international law and public opinion will be very different from that of the Soviet Union’s long campaign to defeat capitalism, the geopolitical ripple effects are certain to be just as far-reaching, if not more so.Russia is set to sideline itself from the global economy, and by doing so it will usher in
Don’t widen political divide in U.S.

Mar 23, 2014

WASHINGTON ― Renewed calls by Republican hotheads for an independent special prosecutor to investigate whether the IRS engaged in criminal conduct during the 2012 campaign should fall on deaf ears.It would be silly to elevate what appears to be an egregious mistake by bureaucrats to the level of a constitutional crisis ― particularly at a time when the nation faces what is arguably its widest partisan divide of the 21st century.Moderate GOP congressional leaders declined to call for a special pr
[Yu Kun-ha] Cutting red tape helps economy pick up speed

Mar 23, 2014

When it comes to government regulation, Korea is still a Third World country. This is well illustrated by the low rankings it has continued to receive in the category of “burden of government regulation” in the World Economic Forum’s annual Global Competitiveness Reports.Korea’s overall rankings in the past three years were 24th in 2011, 19th in 2012 and 25th in 2013. But in the regulatory burden category, it placed 117th among 142 countries in 2011, 114th among 144 countries in 2012 and 95th am
Crimea’s democracy trampled its constitution

Mar 23, 2014

Constitutionalism and democracy go together like chocolate and peanut butter, right? Wrong ― as events proved this week in Crimea.Ukraine’s constitution doesn’t allow for the secession of Crimea and its incorporation into Russia. Yet 96 percent of voting Crimeans chose secession, raising the question of why the constitution should even be followed. Does anyone seriously doubt that the overwhelming majority of Crimeans welcome integration into Russia? The democratic impulse contradicts the consti
Can you see Beijing from the Eiffel Tower?

Mar 23, 2014

Last week, as Parisians were choked by the city’s worst, Eiffel Tower-obscuring smog since 1997, they were left to ask the same, depressing question: How does this compare with Beijing?As it happens, not well. For a few days at least, the air quality in Paris was much worse than in Beijing. (This was partially due to an unusual clean spell in Beijing.)Paris responded by imposing an alternating-day driving ban, starting Monday with even-numbered plates and continuing on Tuesday with odd-numbered
[David Ignatius] America’s challenge in Ukraine

Mar 21, 2014

WASHINGTON ― Vladimir Putin baptized his conquest of Crimea with a powerful, unsettling speech that should be a warning that an embattled Russia is fighting for what it sees as its national dignity ― in ways that require a firm and patient U.S. response. Putin played all the strings of the balalaika in his speech Tuesday announcing the annexation of Crimea. He was, by turns: sentimental, sarcastic, resentful and intimidating. He put the world on notice that he is determined to restore Russia’s p
The Russian Godfather’s paranoid world

Mar 21, 2014

WARSAW ― Russian President Vladimir Putin is behaving like a Mafia boss. In invading, occupying, and finally annexing Crimea, he pointed Russia’s guns at Ukraine and said: your territorial sovereignty or your life. So far, extortion has worked ― and Putin knows it.Indeed, in his speech announcing the annexation of Crimea, Putin spoke his mind: his regime fears no punishment and will do whatever it pleases. Crimea is just the first step toward realizing his dream of revived Russian greatness.His
[David Ignatius] What we learned in Crimea

Mar 20, 2014

WASHINGTON ― From the photographs we’ve seen of the Russian special operations, or “Spetsnaz,” troops that intervened in Crimea, several things are obvious: They’re secretive, moving without insignia and often covering their faces; they’re disciplined and they’re decisive. The diplomatic response to the Russian intervention is continuing. But Pentagon officials are beginning to assess the military “lessons learned.” The bottom line is that Russia’s move into Crimea was a study in the speedy depl
Sanctions on Russia symbolic of a hollow culture

Mar 20, 2014

PARIS ― There are fewer things more pathetic than watching someone take a running dive off a high board only to end in a spectacular belly flop and still think that they’re scoring a perfect 10. That’s U.S. President Barack Obama right now on the issue of sanctions against Russia. It’s a worrying attitude that increasingly permeates Western culture.Europe and America supported a coup d’tat against a democratically elected government and president in the Ukrainian capital of Kiev, which in turn l
History is a nightmare ― sometimes in 3-D

Mar 20, 2014

Comedy, epic, drama, romance, action, sci-fi and more: the choice is almost endless for film-lovers. But enjoyment usually trumps everything ― including some precious lessons hidden among the flickering images.The influential Los Angeles Film Critics Association obviously enjoyed “Her” a lot, naming it Best Film of 2013 in a tie with “Gravity.”Along with Joaquin Phoenix’s performance, the unusual plot must have wowed the critics. The sci-fi comedy romance tells of a guy who develops deep feeling