The Korea Herald

[Lee Jae-min] Trade disputes and domestic policies

Nov 16, 2011

Antigua and Barbuda is the seventh-smallest country in the world with a population of 70,000. This country, as its name connotes, is composed of two main islands and located in the middle of the Caribbean. It is a former British colony where a British naval fortress was located in the 1700s (this fortress was featured in the movie “Pirates of the Caribbean”).In 2003, this small country waged a David-and-Goliath battle against the United States by bringing a claim against Washington at the WTO di
Facing a nuclear Iran

Nov 16, 2011

The United Nations report on Iran’s nuclear program released last week should end the debate, if any debate remained, over whether Iran is moving toward acquiring the ability to build a nuclear weapon. In cautious but convincing detail, the U.N.’s International Atomic Energy Agency listed evidence that Iran is still conducting research that would lead to an atomic bomb, much of it in secret military laboratories. And Iran has refused to answer the U.N.’s questions or allow U.N. inspectors to see
Every man a king? U.K.’s better off with its queens

Nov 16, 2011

U.S. President Barack Obama said at the Group of 20 meeting in Cannes, France, earlier this month that he was told that he had just been given a “crash course” on the complexities of European politics. Well, that’s us, the folk who brought you Byzantine. We do have the habit of talking about one thing while doing another, like your mother peeling potatoes at the sink while telling you to hurry up and provide her with some grandchildren. And, often, the thing we’re doing is not what it appears, a
[Vivek Maru] Giving legal power to the people

Nov 16, 2011

NEW DELHI ― Inspired by Anna Hazare’s hunger strike, thousands of people gathered at Ramlila Grounds in New Delhi to protest governmental corruption. Protesters here and around the country pressed for a specific political change ― a new institution to combat corruption ― and, in principle, they won. Parliament passed a resolution accepting their demands and is now drafting a bill accordingly.But the demonstrations were also motivated by a larger aspiration, one that is more difficult to achieve:
Oh man, girls are beating the boys in tests

Nov 15, 2011

The latest round of test results are in for America’s shoolchildren, this one from the National Assessment of Educational Progress, and there is the usual good and bad news.American kids, for example, are doing better in math than they were in 1990. On the other hand, the gap between white and minority students remains large ― except for Asian students, who got their own category this year and beat everybody.But I noticed something that never seems to change much. Although girls do about as well
[Nouriel Roubini] Eurozone’s endgame has started

Nov 15, 2011

NEW YORK ― The eurozone crisis seems to be reaching its climax, with Greece on the verge of default and an inglorious exit from the monetary union, and now Italy on the verge of losing market access. But the eurozone’s problems are much deeper. They are structural, and they severely affect at least four other economies: Ireland, Portugal, Cyprus, and Spain.For the last decade, the PIIGS (Portugal, Ireland, Italy, Greece, and Spain) were the eurozone’s consumers of first and last resort, spending
A sensible solution to student loan debt

Nov 15, 2011

The college class of 2010 now has a dubious distinction. Its graduates who had student loans owed a record-high average of $25,250, up 5.2 percent from the previous year, according to a new report from the Project on Student Debt, a nonprofit advocacy group.Last month, President Obama announced a plan to make it a little easier for 1.6 million college graduates to repay their government loans, recognizing the drag that $1 trillion in student debt is placing on the economy.In the early 1990s, mos
What not to do about Iran ― military action

Nov 15, 2011

JERUSALEM ― Last spring, Israel’s former spy chief, Meir Dagan, said bombing Iran would be “a stupid idea” for Israel. It would mean regional war and give Iran “the best possible reason to continue its nuclear program.”Those words hung in the air during an extraordinary media debate here over the last two weeks that preceded the release of a U.N. report giving new evidence of Iranian plans to build nuclear weapons. The debate laid out details on a topic rarely discussed here in public: Should th
[Kim Seong-kon] Are you insured for emergencies?

Nov 15, 2011

In the U.S., insurance seems to be an imperative prerequisite of human existence. The American people are well-known to be thoroughly prepared for a rainy day and thus have various contingency plans for emergencies. Compared to Korea where people are more optimistic and thus do not feel compelled to be insured, the Americans’ fondness for (or obsession with) insurance seems somewhat excessive and redundant. Americans seem to think they need an insurance policy for virtually everything. For examp
A healthier way to provide U.S. universal care

Nov 14, 2011

Last month, the Obama administration abandoned the Community Living Assistance Services and Supports (CLASS) Act, the landmark national long-term-care insurance program that was included in the 2010 health-reform law. CLASS was probably doomed from the start ― a victim of political ill will and poor design. Premiums would have been high and too few healthy people would have enrolled. But it would have been an important first step toward the fiscally sustainable national-insurance program we need
[Robert Reich] The coming collision in the U.S.

Nov 14, 2011

The biggest question in America these days is how to revive the economy.The biggest question among activists now occupying Wall Street and dozens of American cities is how to strike back against the nation’s almost unprecedented concentration of income, wealth and political power in the top 1 percent.The two questions are related. With so much income and wealth concentrated at the top, the vast middle class no longer has the purchasing power to buy what the economy is capable of producing. (Peop
[Meghan Daum] Personhood USA: Zygotes on a slippery slope

Nov 14, 2011

When I first heard about Personhood USA, I got it confused with Up with People, the organization best known for song-and-dance troupes that go around the world singing songs like “Which Way America?” and “What Color Is God’s Skin?” When I realized it was actually an anti-abortion group devoted to the idea that any fertilized human egg should be considered a person, I still couldn’t shake the image of wholesome young performers spreading fetus love across the globe. Instead of singing about peace
How to overthrow the Iranian regime without war or sanctions

Nov 14, 2011

PARIS ― It seems the “success” of the Libyan campaign has again whetted the appetite of Western powers to intervene more aggressively in Iranian affairs. However, the threat of military intervention and the use of economic sanctions that bring suffering for ordinary Iranians only strengthens the grip of Iran’s mafia regime on its power. Any leader who implicitly or explicitly advocates such policies therefore, in effect, plays into the hands of a fragile regime that can only sustain itself throu
[Joel Brinkley] China obsessed with Occupy Wall Street movement

Nov 14, 2011

Right now, China is obsessed with the Occupy Wall Street movement, deathly afraid that it will spread there. How can I tell?The China Daily recently ran a column headlined: “U.S. Media Blackout of Protest is Shameful.” The Lexis-Nexis news service shows that on the very day that column ran, the American news media carried 282 stories about the movement, and in the weeks before, the total was 631.So I called the author, Chen Weihua, deputy editor of China Daily USA. He’s based in New York.“Well,
Looking for a bride? Tajiks turn to kidnapping

Nov 13, 2011

DUSHANBE, Tajikistan ― Kidnapping the woman you want to marry is a well-known, if illegal, tradition in parts of Central Asia. Until recently, such abductions occurred mainly among ethnic Kyrgyzs and Kazaks.But now the idea seems to be catching on among Tajiks as well.“Our neighbor was abducted on her wedding day by the guy who was in love with her,” said Qaisiddin, a resident of the Jirgatal district in Tajikistan. “No one knows where he took her.”According to the resident of this district with