The Korea Herald

[Devendra Saksena] Uncle Sam has become Uncle Scrooge

Sept 30, 2018

World War II left the world in shambles. Europe was devastated; all major cities had been destroyed, the flower of European youth was gone, lying in unmarked graves. Asia had fared little better; China and Southeast Asia had borne the brunt of Japanese aggression, which itself had two nuclear bombs dropped on it. Africa had been devastated by the battling armies of Montgomery and Rommel. The Japanese had come to India’s doorstep and the Great Bengal Famine had inflicted horrendous causalities on
[David Ignatius] America is living under a volcano

Sept 30, 2018

America watched three searing versions of reality television this week. They all demonstrated that under the glare of the lights and the stress of questioning, character reveals itself. Christine Blasey Ford was a startlingly powerful witness before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday, in part because she had been unknown to most Americans before the cameras started rolling. Her answers were clear and concise. She described what she remembered from 36 years ago, and what she didn’t. She n
[Daniel Moss] Asia’s aversion to bank accounts a big deal

Sept 30, 2018

There’s a flaw in the forecast for an ever-rising Asia: a vast gap in the financial system. Big slices of the population don’t have a bank account.It’s hard to see the region reaching its full potential, let alone surpassing the US as an economic superpower, until this bridge is crossed. An economy without broad use of banks cannot grow into a superpower.East Asia and the Pacific seem to be making progress on this. Seventy-one percent of adults have a bank account or equivalent at a mobile money
[Ferdinando Giugliano] Italy’s extraordinary act of self-harm

Sept 30, 2018

The budget that the Italian government is about to pass is a remarkable act of economic self-harm. The measures defy the rules of prudent debt management in order to fund outlays that will do little to improve Italy’s competitiveness. Most important, they tell investors that the populists have the upper hand in government. Italy’s creditworthiness is now that of its ruling parties: the League and the 5-Star Movement.The Italian government aims to run a budget deficit of 2.4 percent of gross dome
[Eli Lake] Trump’s UN speech almost adds up to doctrine

Sept 27, 2018

President Donald Trump’s foreign policy is often caricatured as a mass of contradictions. He rails against the dumb wars of his predecessors, but has yet to withdraw US troops from Afghanistan, Iraq or Syria. He taunted and threatened North Korea’s tyrannical leader, only to later meet him in Singapore for a lavish summit. Trump kisses up to Russia’s autocratic president, but his government sells weapons to Russia’s enemies and sanctions its senior officials.There is some truth to these criticis
[Anjani Trivedi] China racing to top in income inequality

Sept 27, 2018

During China’s greatest period of economic growth, fed by widespread industrialization that lifted millions out of poverty, inequality has also increased -- at the fastest pace and to the highest level in the world. It may get worse.China’s Gini coefficient, a widely used measure of income dispersion across a population, has risen more steeply over the last decade than in any other country, according to an International Monetary Fund working paper. Some inequality is to be expected with industri
[Trudy Rubin] 4 reasons why declaring peace on the Korean Peninsula is a bad idea

Sept 26, 2018

US President Donald Trump appears eager to declare that peace has come to the Korean Peninsula.　The president has deluded himself that North Korea is well on its way to getting rid of its nuclear weapons. Last week, he excitedly tweeted: “North Korea recommits to denuclearization -- we’ve come a long way.”　Yet Trump looks eager to overrule his top advisers, who warn of the risks of declaring peace before North Korea gets serious about eliminating its nuclear arsenal.　Instead the president may li
[Kim Myong-sik] To receive Kim Jong-un in Seoul peacefully

Sept 26, 2018

People often say that President Moon Jae-in is a good man, but instantly add that he is “not necessarily a strong or capable leader, though.” The constantly smiling president demonstrated his affable character on his two-night, three-day visit to North Korea last week, during which he signed a broadly worded peace communique with North Korean chief Kim Jong-un and produced a fairly detailed agreement on reducing military tension in the Demilitarized Zone. Doubtless, Moon was immersed in the warm
[Shuli Ren] Crazy-rich Asians are so yesterday in China

Sept 26, 2018

There’s a new breed of spender in charge of China’s wallets, and it’s not crazy-rich Asians.The rise of Pinduoduo Inc. and the decline of JD.com Inc. are good proxies for this shift. Founded three years ago, the e-commerce site Pinduoduo processed transactions worth 262 billion yuan ($38.3 billion) in the second quarter, just 40 percent shy of JD’s gross merchandise volume. The smaller company now has more annual active users than JD, China’s second-largest e-commerce provider with 16 percent of
[Kim Hoo-ran] Staying clear-eyed on N. Korea more important than ever

Sept 26, 2018

The third summit between South Korean President Moon Jae-in and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in Pyongyang last week had many Instagrammable moments.There was the pomp and ceremony of Moon’s arrival at Sunan International Airport where he was greeted by Kim and his senior officials, ceremonial guards and a 21-gun salute. A motorcade through the Pyongyang thoroughfare saw the two leaders standing side by side in an open-top car waving at the crowds of people in colorful hanbok chanting “Unifica
[Ann McFeatters] Trump never appeals to our better angels

Sept 26, 2018

There is growing worry that Americans may be becoming less compassionate.There is a sense the dog-eat-dog world of national politics is filtering down. People are being worn down by crisis after crisis, by being pounded over and over by rhetoric that the US must be selfish and upend the world order to get what is best for it.US President Donald Trump was cheered by a certain section of citizens when he stood in front of Americans who had lost everything in two hurricanes -- including 2,975 of th
[David Ignatius] Israeli-Palestinian peace process is dead

Sept 20, 2018

This month commemorates two pinnacles for the benign, naive superpower that was America, both involving our now-lost role as Middle East peacemaker. Forty years ago, President Jimmy Carter brokered the Camp David Accords between Israel and Egypt; and 25 years ago, President Bill Clinton presided over the signing of the Oslo Accord between Israel and the Palestinians. As we looked this week at the old photographs of beaming American presidents grandly mediating between adversaries, what was happe
[Pankaj Mishra] What Economist gets wrong about liberalism

Sept 20, 2018

Last weekend in London, the Economist braved angry protesters to host Steve Bannon, the former White House chief strategist, and white nationalist, at the magazine’s Open Future festival. The week before, outrage on social media and threatened cancellations from invited speakers had forced the New Yorker to cancel a similar public interview with Bannon.The Economist has been a self-conscious flag-bearer of Anglo-American liberalism since it started publication 175 years ago. As its editor wrote
[Editorial] Denuclearization in sync

Sept 20, 2018

Kim must promise substantial steps; Moon must not move hastily on inter-Korean relations　
[David Fickling] China’s trade-war tack steeped in history

Sept 19, 2018

President Donald Trump certainly has a way of picking his moment.　After weeks of will-he, won’t-he, the US government’s latest announcement on tariffs on $200 billion in Chinese goods came Tuesday, Beijing time, just as the nation was preparing a nationalistic commemoration of resistance to foreign humiliation.　Sept. 18, 1931 marks the Mukden Incident, when dissident Japanese soldiers staged a fake attack on a railway line near the modern Chinese city of Shenyang as a pretext to their country’s