The Korea Herald

[Noah Smith] Growth remedy for wage stagnation

Dec 3, 2018

Wages for the average American aren’t rising very quickly. Apart from a brief burst of growth in late 2014 and 2015, both average hourly earnings and total compensation (which includes health care and other benefits) have barely grown at all since 2010 when adjusted for inflation.It seems possible that recent wage stagnation is connected to the longer-term trend.In reality, there are several trends. The first is sluggish productivity growth. Overall, the amount of material wealth in an economy i
[Faye Flam] Nature hasn’t created perfect species

Dec 3, 2018

For such flawed creatures, human beings are surprisingly hard to improve, at least through our genes.That’s one reason there’s so much outcry over the recent claim that researchers in China altered the genes of a pair of twins girls -- endowing at least one with resistance to HIV. The genetic change, even if it worked as advertised, would not be a clear-cut improvement but a trade-off.The claim is that the researchers disabled a gene called CCR5, which in its intact form helps HIV enter cells. G
[Alexandra Borchardt] Mundane dangers confronting news media

Dec 3, 2018

The brutal torture and murder of the US-based Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi has focused attention on Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who is widely believed to have ordered the killing. It also highlights the hazards of the news business. When the final numbers are tallied, 2018 could be the most dangerous year on record for journalists worldwide.But while physical attacks on journalists have become frighteningly bold, most dangers confronting the profession are much more mundane. Five
[Julian Lee] OPEC might kick Saudi Arabia when it’s down

Dec 3, 2018

OPEC and friends meet in Vienna later this week, and the backdrop isn’t pretty. Oil prices are their lowest in over a year, and there’s the prospect of a glut in 2019 if the group doesn’t make a new deal to cut production.But agreement may be impossible. Saudi Arabia is adamant the burden must be shared. Others in the group argue that the kingdom’s output boost since June has created the problem and it is up to the kingdom to solve it by bearing the brunt of the cuts.From an economic perspective
[David Ignatius] America needs to use power silently

Dec 2, 2018

Listen to the voice barking orders on a Russian ship last Sunday as it drove straight toward a Ukrainian tug: “Crush him from the right. ... Do it! Do it! (Expletive) cut him off!” And then, just before the deliberate collision, a satisfied: “Hold on, everyone.” What you sense is the raw exuberance of Russian power, in the audio and video recordings released by the Ukrainian interior minister and posted on YouTube by BBC News. The Russian captain snarls obscene, bellicose orders to his crew -- c
[John Micklethwait] China inching in the right direction

Dec 2, 2018

It was appropriate that US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping flew to Buenos Aires for their showdown summit at the close of a month that began with the centennial of the end of World War I. America’s economic tussles with China are all too reminiscent of the rivalry at the beginning of the last century between Britain, the superpower, and the rising power, Germany.This is not as bleak a comparison as it sounds, for two reasons. First, nobody now seems to be planning on immi
[Matthew B. Kugler] Does it hurt you if your face is tracked by technology?

Dec 2, 2018

Would you care if a store used facial recognition to track you as you shopped? If it could link your face to your credit card and know not just what you bought, but also what you looked at? Data I’ve gathered on consumer sentiment suggests that many people do mind being tracked through their biometrics. In one study I conducted, 77 percent of people expressed interest in a coffee shop customer loyalty program that worked by ID card, but only 47 percent were interested if the same program tracked
[Chong Lip Teck] Why ratifying human rights convention is an issue in Malaysia

Dec 2, 2018

A convention to end racial discrimination is stoking anger in Malaysia.But fears that the ratification of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD) could have adverse consequences may be ill-founded. ICERD is a United Nations Convention that commits its members to the elimination of racial discrimination and the promotion of understanding among all races. The convention was adopted and opened for signature by the United Nations General Assembl
[Eli Lake] Don’t punish US for Saudi Arabia’s crimes

Dec 2, 2018

If you want to understand why the Senate voted last week to move forward with a resolution ending US support for the Saudi-led war in Yemen, read the speech that Bob Corker delivered from the Senate floor on Wednesday.The outgoing chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee has long been an ally of Saudi Arabia in Washington. And yet Corker voted to move the Yemen resolution out of his committee. Mind you, he didn’t say he would be supporting it when it comes to the floor for a vote. Rath
[Mohamed A. El-Erian] Trump-Xi will make us forget this weekend’s G-20 confab

Nov 29, 2018

This weekend’s G-20 summit in Argentina will likely demonstrate what does and doesn’t work for this multilateral format, but also for international policy gatherings more generally. Despite weakening and diverging global economic growth, the aspiration for the larger discussions among leaders representing about three-quarters of global gross domestic product has been reduced to issuing bland joint communiques -- and that’s assuming an agreement on this can be achieved. The real action will be ta
[Leonid Bershidsky] Martial law won’t help Ukraine’s president

Nov 29, 2018

Imposing martial law after a naval clash with Russia in the Kerch Strait looked like a political masterstroke for Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, coming ahead of an election that polls suggest he will lose. But by the time parliament had finished with his decree, it was clear he had snatched defeat from the jaws of victory. The president’s initial plan was to declare martial law throughout Ukraine for 60 days. With an election scheduled for March 31, this threatened to throw into disarray
[Richard McGregor] Beijing’s ground game in Taiwan is growing smarter

Nov 28, 2018

At least one thing is clear from local elections in Taiwan over the weekend -- President Tsai Ing-wen and her ruling Democratic Progressive Party lost badly. Less clear, however, is how well Beijing won.In a slew of polls and referendums on the self-governed island, Tsai’s DPP lost key races in the party’s longstanding local strongholds and saw its progressive agenda on gay marriage and a tougher line against Beijing repudiated.The results bode poorly for the independence-leaning DPP and mark an
[Shuli Ren] China’s blue-collar wave strengthens Xi’s G20 hand

Nov 28, 2018

A blue-collar wave is rising in China -- and buoying Xi Jinping.In most countries, a slowing economy and a sinking stock market would put some heat on politicians. Not in China. A working class that numbers more than 400 million has President Xi’s back.Under his presidency, China’s economic policies are favoring workers more than at any other time in recent decades. One doesn’t need to look far for evidence. Since 2015, the People’s Bank of China has showered 3.3 trillion yuan ($475 billion) of
[Leonid Bershidsky] In Ukraine, Putin and Poroshenko don’t want all-out war

Nov 28, 2018

Sunday’s dramatic events in the Kerch Strait, where Russian troops seized three Ukrainian navy vessels, highlight the Kremlin’s resolve to hold on to the spoils of its aggression against Ukraine and flout its international obligations. They also show the lengths Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko is willing to go to to remain in power.The clash had been brewing since April, a month before the opening of a new 19-kilometer bridge across the Kerch Strait between the Russian mainland and annexed
[Brooke Sutherland] Trump-era vows take another blow with GM cuts

Nov 28, 2018

General Motors Co.’s aggressive cost-cutting plan shows the danger of taking corporate-investment pledges at face value in the Trump era. The automaker is on track to close five North American plants, four of which are in the US, and cut more than 14,000 salaried staff and factory workers. The company will close another two plants abroad. This belt-tightening is aimed at steering GM away from slower-selling sedans and adding to its firepower for electric and self-driving vehicle development. But