The Korea Herald

[Simon Johnson] The real U.S. crisis is not the debt downgrade

Aug 17, 2011

The U.S. has a fiscal crisis, but not the one that everyone is talking about. Standard and Poor’s proved beyond a reasonable doubt that the U.S. still has the world’s preeminent reserve currency. When shocks hit ― and investors have no idea who or what might be next in line for a downgrade ― they bu
[William D. Cohan] Ending the moral rot on Wall Street (Part 2)

Aug 17, 2011

The following is the second installment of a three-part article on Wall Street corruption and remedies for it. ― Ed.Was all of this immoral, unethical and illegal behavior a mere aberration, brought on in the years leading up to the financial crisis by an atypical combination of greed and hubris? Sa
[David Ignatius] Department of Internet Defense

Aug 16, 2011

ASPEN, Colo. ― “Cyber-security” is one of those hot topics that has launched a thousand seminars and strategy papers, without producing much in the way of policy. But that’s beginning to change, in one of 2011’s most important but least noted government moves. This summer, with little public fa
[Bob Keeler] Chipping away at Environment Protection Agency

Aug 16, 2011

Long before he became our president, Ronald Reagan was widely known for a line he delivered often: “At General Electric, progress is our most important product.” What he didn’t emphasize was GE’s other important product: pollution. The huge company is fully or partly responsible for dozens of Superf
[Kim Seong-kon] K-pop is not enough on its own

Aug 16, 2011

Despite the increasing popularity of K-pop and Korean TV dramas overseas, Korean literature does not seem to attract foreigners’ attention much. With the possible exception of Shin Kyung-sook’s “Please Look after Mom,” which was on the New York Times bestseller list for a while, Korean literature in
[William D. Cohan] Ending the moral rot on Wall Street (Part 1)

Aug 16, 2011

The following is the first installment of a three-part article on Wall Street corruption and remedies for it. ― Ed.What will it take for Americans to finally get the message that much of Wall Street, in its current form, is a corrupt enterprise in need of a top-to-bottom overhaul, a task that the ye
[Pankaj Mishra] London’s rioters are Thatcher’s grandchildren

Aug 16, 2011

I am often asked, when in the U.S. or Europe, whether I feel frightened while traveling through such obviously dangerous places as Afghanistan and Kashmir. It’s hard for me to explain, and so I never confess, that I feel more insecure on the streets of Tower Hamlets, a London borough just south of T
[Joel Brinkley] Settlements keep Mideast unsettled

Aug 15, 2011

GUSH ETZION, West Bank ― Shaul Goldstein knows that most everyone on earth dislikes him and his kind. For some it’s visceral hatred. For others he represents the largest obstacle to solving a problem everyone everywhere wants resolved.“We are the enemy of the world,” he volunteered without any promp
[J. William Leonard] When national secrecy gets out of hand

Aug 15, 2011

Every 6-year-old knows what a secret is. But apparently our nation’s national security establishment does not.Consider this strange case from earlier this year. On June 8, the National Security Agency, a top-secret government spy agency, heralded the “declassification” of a 200-year-old publication,
[Brahma Chellaney] Ethnic tremors an obstacle to stability in China

Aug 15, 2011

NEW DELHI ― In the face of spreading civil unrest among China’s Uighur population, the Chinese government’s love-fest with its all-weather ally, Pakistan, may be starting to sour. Indeed, the authorities in China’s Xinjiang province are charging that a prominent Uighur separatist that they captured
[Seth Masket and Hans Noel] Don’t look to a third-party candidate to lead U.S.

Aug 15, 2011

Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, Barack Obama and an independent and pragmatic president beholden to no party, ideology or interest group are walking down the street. At the same time, all four spot a dollar bill on the ground. Who gets the dollar?Obama, of course. The other three are figments of your
[Rachel Marsden] A disconnect on immigration

Aug 15, 2011

Ipsos has just released a poll measuring citizens’ perception of immigration in 23 countries. Despite what politicians around the world would have their countrymen believe, the average person isn’t buying the benefits of current immigration policy.The poll proves that our collective gut is indeed in
[Robert Reich] Jobs bill needed to stop double-dip

Aug 14, 2011

Republicans repeatedly assured the nation that once the debt-limit deal was done ― capping spending, cutting the budget deficit, and getting “98 percent” of what they wanted, according to House Speaker John Boehner ― the economy would bounce back.Guess what? Just the opposite seems to be happening.
[Jeff Dietrich] Home sweet shopping cart for those on skid row

Aug 14, 2011

It looked like an anti-terrorist takedown: five cop cars, 10 police officers, a yellow skip loader and a 5-ton dump truck. They screeched to a halt and blocked off 6th Street in front of our soup kitchen in downtown Los Angeles. But their target this spring was not a suicide bomber or a hidden nucle
[Peter Singer] Moving toward a planet for all apes

Aug 14, 2011

MELBOURNE ― Two new movies released this month ― one a science-fiction blockbuster, the other a revealing documentary ― raise the issue of our relations with our closest non-human relatives, the great apes. Both dramatize insights and lessons that should not be ignored.Rupert Wyatt’s Rise of the Pla