The Korea Herald

NYSE bell tolls for exchange that fell behind

Dec 24, 2012

The name on the building will remain and the opening bell will continue to ring every trading day. But an era is about to end, sadly, with the agreement by the New York Stock Exchange to sell itself to IntercontinentalExchange Inc. The contrasts between buyer and seller are stark, and go a long way to explain the deal’s backstory: The NYSE is the world’s largest stock market where the trading floor and colonnaded structure in the heart of Wall Street are symbols of American-style capitalism. ICE
[Jeffrey Frankel] Time to establish nominal GDP growth targets

Dec 24, 2012

ZANZIBAR ― It is time for the world’s major central banks to reconsider how they conduct monetary policy. The U.S. Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank are grappling with sustained economic weakness, despite years of low interest rates. In Japan, Shinzo Abe, the opposition Liberal Democratic Party’s candidate for prime minister, campaigned for a more expansionary monetary policy ahead of the general election on Dec. 16. And central banks in both the United Kingdom and China are coming u
[David Ignatius] Right fit for the Pentagon?

Dec 23, 2012

WASHINGTON ― The debate over whether Chuck Hagel should be appointed secretary of defense has centered on his sometimes critical views of Israel. But that’s the wrong issue. The question is whether Hagel is the right person to run the Pentagon at a delicate moment of transition in defense policy and spending. Hagel has been unusually blunt in resisting political pressure from pro-Israel groups, which led Abraham Foxman, head of the Anti-Defamation League, to charge that his past comments “border
Irresponsible leadership casts shadow over Venezuela

Dec 23, 2012

Venezuela’s real-life telenovela has taken a dramatic and dangerous turn for the worse with the hospitalization and new round of cancer surgery undergone by President Hugo Chavez in Cuba. While Chavez ails, his country remains in a state of suspended animation and Venezuelans are left to wonder where their country is headed.In a genuine democracy, the traditions and independent institutions of the country offer a guarantee of political stability when the elected leader can no longer wield power.
Park Geun-hye returns to the Blue House

Dec 23, 2012

Park Geun-hye has eked out a victory in South Korea’s presidential election. The conservative candidate narrowly bested progressive rival Moon Jae-in in a contest whose outcome was not apparent until the votes were counted.Her win is an important moment for her country, not only because she is South Korea’s first female leader but also because of her pedigree ― she is the daughter of assassinated dictator President Park Chung-hee. Her return to the Blue House marks a closing of the circle on her
Sex scandals, succession shaped Asia’s 2012

Dec 23, 2012

Few people are happier to see 2012 end than Hu Jintao, Yoshihiko Noda or Lee Myung-bak. It was a rocky year for the leaders of China, Japan and South Korea, who leave office with legacies in tatters. Gripes about President Hu doing little about China’s biggest challenges outnumbered the accolades. Noda’s premiership ended as ingloriously as those of the other five leaders Japan has had in the past six years. Lee’s time as president will be remembered for South Korea’s widening rich-poor divide a
[Eli Park Sorensen] The gigantic, confusing library of the universe

Dec 23, 2012

In the story “The Library of Babel” (1941), the Argentine writer Jorge Luis Borges imagines the universe as a gigantic library, consisting of an indefinite number of hexagonal rooms, each filled with rows of books. “Each book,” writes Borges, “is of four hundred and ten pages; each page, of forty lines, each line, of some eighty letters which are in black color.” Most of the text inside the books, however, consists of sequences of letters utterly incomprehensible and unreadable to the people inh
Put prospective gun owners under microscope

Dec 21, 2012

PARIS ― Anyone who can’t withstand a rational debate on the subject of gun control ― particularly in light of last week’s Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre in Connecticut ― should be automatically prohibited from ever owning a firearm. In fact, this should be the number-one requirement of gun ownership: Can someone applying for ownership of a deadly weapon withstand an hour-long debate against someone in favor of gun control without resorting to physical or verbal assault?Is it too much to a
[Robert Reich] Take care of the children

Dec 21, 2012

America’s children seem to be shortchanged on almost every issue we face as a society.Not only are we failing to protect our children from deranged people wielding semi-automatic guns, we’re not protecting them from poverty. The rate of child poverty keeps rising - even faster than the rate of adult poverty. We now have the highest rate of child poverty in the developed world.And we’re not protecting their health. Rates of child diabetes and asthma continue to climb. America has the third-worst
[David Ignatius] A defector’s chilling report

Dec 20, 2012

WASHINGTON ― Reports from inside two Syrian chemical weapons facilities offer some chilling new evidence that President Bashar al-Assad’s regime developed special vehicles last year for moving and mixing the weapons ― and an unconfirmed allegation that Lebanese allies of the regime, presumably in Hezbollah, may have been trained 11 months ago in the weapons’ use. A Syrian source provided a detailed account in a telephone conversation over the weekend, drawing on intelligence provided to him by a
Hypocrisy over infrastructure spending

Dec 20, 2012

If you want to see where rank hypocrisy sits in full flower, you have only to observe Republicans at their desks in the House and Senate. There, they are openly ridiculing President Obama’s proposed $50 billion stimulus bill for desperately needed infrastructure work.When Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell heard of the president’s plan, he derisively laughed out loud, as if he’d been handed a piece of road kill. At about the same time, Bill Shuster, a Pennsylvania Republican who is incoming
Japan’s LDP must regain public’s trust

Dec 20, 2012

Japanese voters handed down a stern judgement on the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ)-led government. They obviously opted for a stable administration from which realistic policies can be expected.The Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and its likely coalition partner New Komeito together garnered more than 320 seats in the 46th House of Representatives election Sunday to secure a return to power. It was an overwhelming victory but was not met with an air of excitement.The DPJ, on the other hand, suf
[Andrew Sheng] Risks from shadow banking

Dec 20, 2012

In 2007, bond market guru Bill Gross coined the term “shadow banking” to illustrate the role of non-bank institutions in creating money-like credit that could implode and affect the traditional banking system. Four years later, the Financial Stability Board (FSB) finally gave its initial recommendations on how to oversee the shadow banking system to G20.Last month, FSB published its Monitoring Report on Global Shadow Banking, revealing that the global shadow banking system rose from $26 trillion
Japan’s swing to the right will have consequences

Dec 20, 2012

Japanese voters have turned their frustration into a strong vote for the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), which they had kicked out of office three years ago after more than five decades of political dominance. Now, the old hands, mostly aging, conservative leaders of the LDP, are back in force. It is rather unusual for a former Japanese prime minister, in this case Shinzo Abe, to hold the position for a second time. This follows his stint of one year from 2006 to 2007. His return, despite his pa
IMF rethink on capital controls a good start

Dec 19, 2012

The International Monetary Fund has rethought its doctrine on capital controls. The IMF, which previously favored unfettered flows of money across borders, now accepts that controls are sometimes necessary. This is a real improvement, yet it’s incomplete because it lacks a mechanism for supervision and enforcement. The fund can’t rectify that omission by itself. Member governments can and should. The previous orthodoxy said that restricting international flows of capital is almost always wrong: