Back in 1992, Lawrence H. Summers, then the chief economist at the World Bank, and I warned that pushing the US Federal Reserve’s annual inflation target down from 4 percent to 2 percent risked causing big problems. Not only was the 4 percent target not producing any discontent, but a 2 percent target would increase the risk of the Fed’s interest-rate policy hitting the zero lower bound. Our objections went unheeded. Fed Chair Alan Greenspan reduced the inflation target to 2 percent

In the former US Army compound at Yongsan in central Seoul, there is a park named after the South Korean flag, Taegukgi. In this park, adorned by Mugunghwa, the national flower of South Korea, 50 Taegukgi are fluttering around the clock.　 According to the information bulletin, the park was created in 1998 to “revive the national spirit and arouse patriotism.” It was a commendable undertaking at a time when core values are often challenged.　 What raises eyebrows, however, is the in

As Korea has developed into the 10th-largest economy in the world, many in Korea now wonder when the country will win a Nobel Prize in the five scholarly categories. Frustrated, Korea’s basic science community even voices a call for the establishment of a dedicated incubator program to support promising scientists and their research. And yet, few dare to entertain, indeed argue for, the notion that the “Saemaul Undong” (literally translated, “New Village Movement”),

How do nations sleepwalk into war? Often through lack of imagination. That is the thesis that impelled Adm. James Stavridis, a former NATO supreme commander, and Elliot Ackerman, a prominent fiction writer and decorated Marine veteran, to write “2034: A Novel of the Next World War.” The new novel envisions how the United States and China could blunder into a nuclear conflict, propelled by Chinese nationalism, American hubris, and a US failure to grasp the extent of Chinese advances

Watching “Minari,” a largely autobiographical film by Korean American director Lee Isaac Chung, I recalled a young family who one Sunday joined a church service of mostly Korean and Korean American college students in western Massachusetts in the late 1980s. They were an immigrant family, like the Yi family in “Minari,” and the father worked as a chick sexer, like parents Jacob and Monica in the film. It was the first time I had heard of the job, which involves determin

The scientist in charge of France’s vaccine rollout, Alain Fischer, must sometimes feel like Sisyphus forever rolling his boulder up the hill. After months of patiently working to win over a doubting public’s acceptance of the groundbreaking mRNA vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna, he’s now fighting to convince French doctors to offer AstraZeneca’s more traditional shot to their patients. Resistance runs deep even as doses pile up, more data about efficacy emerges and Pres

In my house, we have a problem. My wife has been vaccinated; I haven’t. Am I envious? Of course I am. Resentful? Yeah, some of that too. When she came home all cheerful after her second COVID-19 vaccine shot last week, I couldn’t help feel that she had crossed safely to the other side of a giant chasm, while I remained at the edge of the cliff. Later, when she complained of a headache and some chills from the second shot, I was, perhaps, a tad less sympathetic than I could have bee

There can be various ways to love one’s country. And there may also be many ways to memorialize heroic deeds of a great individual. Lee Seok-young (1855-1934) gave away his vast wealth to help resurrect his fallen country; and now his adopted hometown of Namyangju is responding with a series of projects to nurture future generations in the name of the legendary activist for Korean independence. On Feb. 16, Namyangju City hosted a ceremony marking the 87th anniversary of Lee’s death.

As the US economy falters and many Americans have lost their jobs due to COVID-19, hostility toward Asians has recently accelerated. According to CNN, there have been approximately 3,000 cases of violence against Asians and Asian Americans in the US in the past year. CBS News reported that, “Nearly 500 Asians in New York were targets of bias incidents or hate crimes in 2020, ranging from verbal to physical assaults, including acid attacks.” NBC News said in a report last week that, &

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-New York, in emotional testimony delivered during a congressional hearing last month, bravely revealed that she was once the victim of a sexual assault. As a historian, her stunning admission reminded me instantly of former presidents Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton and Woodrow Wilson. Not because they too were once sexually abused (or accused of abuse), but because of how often personal trauma seems to be a part of the histories of prominent politicians. Exploring

President Joe Biden’s ability to bring together the two parties in Congress is already being tested. But the good news is that on at least one issue -- climate change -- the fate of the president’s ambitions does not rest primarily with his ability to unite Congress, but with his ability to support and expand ongoing work in the rest of the country. Consider this: The US is actually within striking distance of reaching the goal it set under the Paris climate agreement, a 26 percent

Two years ago, even before launching his presidential bid, Joe Biden told Western European leaders that Donald Trump’s America First foreign policy was a momentary blip in US global leadership. “I promise you; this too will pass,” the then former vice president told the Munich Security Conference, a forum he often attended as a senator. “We will be back.” Last week, President Biden redeemed that promise, telling the annual national security forum that “Ameri

As US President Joe Biden’s proposed $1.9 trillion economic stimulus package works its way through Congress, former Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers (a Democrat) and many Republicans argue that the plan is too big. But perhaps a more important question is whether the United States is falling into a “stimulus trap,” and, if so, how to get out of it. The Biden rescue plan is the federal government’s third attempt within a year to help the US economy recover from the pan

Twenty years ago, central bankers were proudly narrow-minded and conservative. They made a virtue of caring more about inflation than about the average citizen, and took great pains to be obsessively repetitive. As future Bank of England Gov. Mervyn King said in 2000, their ambition was to be boring. The 2008 financial crisis abruptly dashed that objective. Ever since, central bankers have been busy developing new policy instruments to fight fires and ward off emerging threats. Nonetheless, ma

Playing a mobile game is supposed to be entertaining. But it’s no longer deemed a plaything. For instance, 0.00029 percent is the official chance that gamers, in theory, could get an extremely rare item in a popular Korean mobile game. Despite the slim chance, some hyper-rich gamers spend over $1 million in real money to get such items, translating into huge profit for developers and publishers. In recent months, game developers here are rushing to announce steep pay raises for their emp