The Korea Herald

The next U.S. pesident is sure to break the rules

Nov 5, 2012

In his interview with the Des Moines Register in Iowa, outlining his priorities for his second term, President Barack Obama made some brief remarks that received too little attention: “I’ve expressed a deep desire and taken executive action to weed out regulations that aren’t contributing to the health and public safety of our people. And we’ve made a commitment to look back and see if there are regulations out there that aren’t working, then let’s get rid of them and see if we can clear out som
Bill Clinton is already a sure election-day winner

Nov 5, 2012

Whoever captures the White House on Nov. 6, the election season produced one clear winner: William Jefferson Clinton. The 42nd president, starting with his speech at the Democratic National Convention establishing the predicate for President Barack Obama’s economic message, set a new standard for effective political surrogates. Republicans, including more than a few who voted, on specious grounds, to impeach him 14 years ago, extolled the good old days of the Clinton presidency. There is no more
[Joseph E. Stiglitz] The world has a stake in outcome of U.S. election

Nov 5, 2012

NEW YORK ― Most people around the world will not be able to vote in the United States’s upcoming presidential election, even though they have a great deal at stake in the result. Overwhelmingly, non-U.S. citizens favor Barack Obama’s reelection over a victory for his challenger, Mitt Romney. There are good reasons for this.In terms of the economy, the effects of Romney’s policies in creating a more unequal and divided society would not be directly felt abroad. But, in the past, for better and fo
Greece needs a writedown, not a buyback

Nov 4, 2012

The prime minister of Greece took a large political risk Oct. 31 to keep Greece in the euro, just as other euro area leaders appear to be recognizing that the country needs more time and more relief from its debt obligations to survive. That’s progress. Lowered interest rates for Greece and help with a debt buyback are among the ideas under discussion. Any move by Germany to work with Greece is welcome, even if things are only where they should have been two years ago. The coming week’s flurry o
[Lee Jae-min] Greater role as UNSC member

Nov 4, 2012

Pointed statements were exchanged between Soviet Ambassador Andrei Gromyko and U.S. Secretary of State James Byrnes at the first U.N. General Assembly meeting of Jan. 12, 1946. The touchy topic on the agenda was how to select six non-permanent members of the Security Council in compliance with the principle of “equitable geographical distribution” as agreed upon in the San Francisco Conference. New Zealand was particularly vocal, fearing that the region of the South Pacific would not be adequate
A vote for a president to lead on climate change

Nov 4, 2012

The devastation that Hurricane Sandy brought to New York City and much of the Northeast ― in lost lives, lost homes and lost business ― brought the stakes of Tuesday’s presidential election into sharp relief. The floods and fires that swept through our city left a path of destruction that will require years of recovery and rebuilding work. And in the short term, our subway system remains partially shut down, and many city residents and businesses still have no power. In just 14 months, two hurri
[Naomi Wolf] Kill and let die

Nov 4, 2012

NEW YORK ― By a strange but fitting coincidence, U.S. President Barack Obama and his Republican challenger, Mitt Romney, held their final debate ― which focused on foreign policy ― just as the new James Bond film, Skyfall, had its world premiere in London. Although 007, who turned 50 this year, is a British-born global brand, his influence on the American political psyche ― and that psyche’s influence on Bond ― is obvious.Indeed, the latest production is a British-American partnership, and the v
[George Soros] A Europe of solidarity, not only discipline

Nov 4, 2012

BERLIN ― Originally, the European Union was what psychologists call a “fantastic object,” a desirable goal that inspires people’s imaginations. I saw it as the embodiment of an open society ― an association of nation-states that gave up part of their sovereignty for the common good and formed a union dominated by no one nation or nationality.The euro crisis, however, has turned the EU into something radically different. Member countries are now divided into two classes ― creditors and debtors ―
Leaders must work with natural market forces

Nov 2, 2012

PARIS ― Regardless of who wins the U.S. presidential election next week, one thing seems certain: Americans are about to learn the same hard lessons recently visited upon the French and the British. That is, whoever ends up being elected head of any given political system will be required to work within the confines of current global economic forces.Candidates can promise all the economic changes they want within their particular national bubble, but nothing will actually change without the bles
[J. Bradford DeLong] The West’s debt to Stalingrad

Nov 2, 2012

BERKELEY ― We are not newly created, innocent, rational, and reasonable beings. We are not created fresh in an unmarked Eden under a new sun. We are, instead, the products of hundreds of millions of years of myopic evolution, and thousands of years of unwritten and then recorded history. Our past has built up layer upon layer of instincts, propensities, habits of thought, patterns of interaction, and material resources.On top of this historical foundation, we build our civilization. Were it not
China’s president-in-waiting is inheriting a mess

Nov 1, 2012

Sales of Swiss watches to China have fallen by almost 30 percent in recent months, and jewelry sales are plummeting, too. So there can be little doubt the country is in deep trouble.As the American presidential campaign grinds toward its inglorious end, President Obama and Mitt Romney are both trying to show how tough they will be on China, infuriating Beijing. At the same time, Obama is “pivoting” the military toward Asia, away from the Middle East, obviously worried about China.But when you lo
[David Ignatius] Requiem for a ‘gray’ man

Nov 1, 2012

WASHINGTON ― Three days before his murder, Brig. Gen. Wissam al-Hassan told me in a telephone interview from France that his contacts with the Syrian opposition put him “under a big light for Hezbollah” and made it “complicated for me to move” because he was a potential target. The Lebanese intelligence chief’s comments have the haunting quality of words from the other side of the grave, following his death Oct. 19 in a car-bomb attack in Beirut. He knew he would be in danger back in Lebanon bec
Another wave of Rohingya persecution

Nov 1, 2012

Set against the backdrop of June and August riots between majority Rakhine Buddhist and minority ethnic Muslim Rohingyas that had caused exodus of the latter out in to the sea, there has been a fresh spate of violence on the Rohingyas triggering their displacement out of their own country.Going by the United Nation’s statistics, 22,587 people have been displaced with 67 lives lost as Muslim survivors flee bullets and burning homes to escape on fishing boats floating on the sea. According to one
Keep ties steady in a time of leadership change

Nov 1, 2012

China, the United States and, quite likely Japan, face leadership changes at a moment of rising tension in the East China Sea.Even in the best of times, the transitional coincidence would make it challenging for them to manage their strategic relations smoothly. With the dispute between China and Japan over the Diaoyu/Senkaku islands touching off confrontations at sea and protests on land, the risk of miscalculation is higher ― with potentially dangerous consequences for the region and beyond.Ev
Laos takes first steps onto stage of global trade

Nov 1, 2012

Laos is set to become fully integrated with the global economy after the World Trade Organisation accepted the “least-developed” country’s application for membership. Laos’s entry to the world trade-governing body is welcomed: it paves the way to transition for one of the world’s least-developed countries onto the stage of global trade.The communist country was finally accepted as a member 15 years after it first applied to join the WTO. “Laos has come a long way since it embarked on the road to