The government and the public will have to work together to rehabilitate the nation after the flood crisis, to ensure that we emerge stronger. Beneath the lower growth-rate forecasts recently announced by some economic institutes, there are a number of issues that the government will have to tackle to ensure the nation rebounds in the long run.Instead of focusing on bolstering short-term growth, Thailand should have a comprehensive platform to address future natural disasters, to win back the co

The United States continues to blame China for alleged intrusions into U.S. government and defense industry computer networks. This month a report released by the Project 2049 Initiative, a U.S.-based think tank, details China’s signals intelligence organization, and what role it thinks the People’s Liberation Army has in collecting cyber intelligence. And last month, a draft report by the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission claimed that cyber hackers “achieved all the steps requi

The Government Revitalization Unit has proposed a drastic review of the Monju program, which aims to develop a next-generation nuclear reactor. The review will include whether the program should be scrapped.During the unit’s policy review session that started Sunday, all seven members of the screening committee, which includes Diet members of the ruling Democratic Party of Japan, criticized the program. “More than 1 trillion yen has been injected so far, but the program has borne no fruit,” one

Scanning the public arena, some might be hard-pressed to find cause for thanks. Unemployment remains stubbornly high, inflicting pain on millions of Americans and undermining the futures of millions more. The economy at large is skittish, bracing for the sound of other shoes dropping in Europe. The national debt just surpassed $15 trillion. What’s more, the U.S. is sharply divided along ideological lines, with the opposing sides sorting themselves with dispiriting consistency by race, age and so

In today’s information society businesses are becoming globalized and interlinked with each other on the Internet. In addition, companies are handling larger amounts of data and managing confidential information. This obviously increases the potential risks of cyber security and privacy on the Internet for businesses.According to a survey in 2010 from the Korea Internet & Security Agency, Korean businesses seem in grave danger of information security vulnerabilities because of hidden risks. Firs

The Redcoats are coming! The Redcoats are coming!Remember what your elementary school teacher taught you about the War of Independence? The British wore scarlet coats, which made them easy marks and symbolized institutional pomposity, adherence to status over efficiency and an out-of-touch empire bent on doing things the old way. The rebellious American colonists, on the other hand, wore whatever; they were nimble, unencumbered by institutional baggage and not too proud to employ guerrilla tacti

At least six months.That’s the minimum amount of time that Pennsylvania State University officials had to ready their public response before everything hit the fan in the Jerry Sandusky case. While the debate continues as to who within the Penn State community was on notice of Sandusky’s alleged sexual abuse of children over the years, it is undeniable that, since the spring, the university was on notice of a potentially earth-shattering investigation. Still, the ineptitude that appears to have

The forthcoming Durban conference comes at a major crossroads in international relations, with continuing economic malaise in the West being counterpoised with the increasingly rapid shift of power to emerging economies. Mirroring this structural change is a fundamental shift in the center of gravity of the global climate change debate that few have yet to recognize. While the outlook for Durban is highly uncertain, a critical mass of countries are currently advancing landmark domestic climate c

You’ve probably never heard of Taunus Corp., but according to the Federal Reserve, it’s the U.S.’s eighth-largest bank holding company. Taunus, it turns out, is the North American subsidiary of Germany’s Deutsche Bank AG, with assets of just over $380 billion. Deutsche Bank holds a large amount of European government and bank debt; it also has considerable exposure to lingering real estate problems in the U.S. The bank, therefore, could become a conduit for risk between the two economies. But wh

One area where the U.S. indisputably leads the world is incarceration. There are 2.3 million people behind bars, almost one in every 100 Americans. The federal prison population has more than doubled over the past 15 years, and one in nine black children has a parent in jail. Proportionally, the U.S. has four times as many prisoners as Israel, six times more than Canada or China, eight times more than Germany and 13 times more than Japan. With just a little more than 4 percent of the world’s pop