The Korea Herald

[Andrew Sheng] Will breakthroughs in thinking come from the East?

Jan 7, 2011

Every year end, I would do a review of what I personally achieved and did not achieve. It is a useful reminder of what we might have missed and should really be doing in the coming year. 2010 went by like a flash. At the global level, it was a year of broad recovery from the crash of 2007-09. The emerging markets grew strongly, whilst the advanced markets still struggled with deleveraging and high
China abuses its monopoly over rare earths

Jan 6, 2011

China’s decision to further cut exports of rare-earth elements last week should serve as a wake-up call to Washington: The Chinese monopoly in these minerals ― essential for precision-guided munitions, cruise missiles, radar, high-tech gadgets, solar panels and wind turbines ― must be broken.There are substantial rare-earth deposits outside China, including within the United States. But China’s re
Diplomacy equals optimism over North Korea

Jan 6, 2011

If frequent-flier points convert to diplomatic progress, the endless tensions with North Korea might be reduced by a flurry of air travel.This week, U.S. special envoy to North Korea, Stephen Bosworth, will be in South Korea, China and Japan. His trip and others hint at a return by North Korea to six-party talks that stalled two years ago, when the government in Pyongyang walked away.After a letha
[Caryl Stern] Don’t stop providing aid to children in Haiti

Jan 6, 2011

If you’ve never seen a child die, consider yourself very lucky. A few years ago I sat with a 19-year-old mother watching her daughter in a fast, agonized decline. The small hospital lacked the needed medicines to help. For hours the child battled for every single breath, then lost the fight. Suddenly, she was limp, gray ... gone. All hope and possibility for an entire life suspended in that last,
[Yuriko Koike] Is Cold War II under way in Asia?

Jan 6, 2011

TOKYO ― Mesmerized by China’s vast military buildup, a new constellation of strategic partnerships among its neighbors, and America’s revitalized commitment to Asian security, many shrewd observers suggest that 2010 saw the first sparks of a new Cold War in Asia. But is “Cold War II” really inevitable?Although appeasing China’s drive for hegemony in Asia is unthinkable, every realistic effort must
[Chris Monday] Prisoner of the Russian system: V.V. Putin

Jan 6, 2011

The Christmas to New Year’s period (Gregorian-style) is popular for conducting controversial business. During the little-covered Belarusian “elections,” President Alexander Lukashenko arrested his other competitors, even threatening to send the 3-year-old son of one presidential hopeful to an orphanage. At the same time, Ukraine’s president rounded up his political opponents. In Russia, Mikhail Kh
[William Pesek] Bubbles galore will make 2011 year to remember

Jan 6, 2011

Welcome to the year of the bubble.It may seem an odd assertion at a time when many key economies are in, or on the verge of, recession. Yet near-zero interest rates in Washington, Tokyo and Frankfurt have a way of wreaking havoc with markets and human psychology. It’s not a reach to say we have a bubble in bubbles.The forces that will make for an interesting 2011 go beyond monetary policies. A var
[Lee Hsien Loong] Yuan revaluation benefits China, U.S.

Jan 6, 2011

The world has recovered remarkably quickly from the financial crisis. But growth is now on two tracks: developed economies still struggling with fiscal, financial and structural problems, while emerging economies, especially in Asia, are growing robustly. The resulting global imbalances have created international tensions. The Group of 20 has emerged as a forum to tackle these issues. It was espec
Efforts needed to plug big welfare loopholes

Jan 5, 2011

Only when those in need receive the minimum living allowance will this form of state aid fulfill its proper role of redistributing social wealth in a fair manner and thus ease the gap between the haves and have-nots. The fact that more than 7,000 relatives of officials at various levels were deprived of the privilege to such allowances in East China’s Jiangxi province alone sends the message that
Investors need to check what they’re buying

Jan 5, 2011

Housing prices are sliding again, and there is plenty of blame to go around. Factors include the sluggish recovery, ineffective private and public efforts to prevent foreclosures, suddenly risk-averse lenders and temporary tax credits that generated a short-lived and artificial rally in home sales. But a lawsuit filed last week provides a pointed reminder that the bubble would never have happened
[Bob Ray Sanders] Talking frankly about planning for end-of-life decisions

Jan 5, 2011

“You come into this world on the way out.”All my life, I have heard that axiom. Even as a child, I understood it meant I would die. Of course, as a youngster, I assumed that day would be many years away.Over time, I learned that death is not reserved for the old. Children, young adults and people in their prime could also get a visit from the Grim Reaper.Death is no respecter of persons ― no one c
[David Ignatius] Is the U.S. economic engine repaired?

Jan 5, 2011

WASHINGTON ― “We have magneto trouble. How, then, can we start up again?” mused John Maynard Keynes in December 1930, likening the stagnant economy of the Great Depression to a broken generator in an automobile. Fear not, he wrote, the car eventually would get rolling again, and “we need not assume ... that motoring is over.” As 2011 begins, many investors are acting as if Keynes’ “magneto trouble
[Doyle McManus] The upward mobility gap widening in the U.S.

Jan 5, 2011

Here’s a familiar fact: Economic inequality is rising in the United States. The rich have gotten richer, the poor have stayed poor, and families in the middle have seen their incomes stagnate.Here’s a less-familiar fact: Opportunity in America isn’t what it used to be either. Among children born into low-income households, more than two-thirds grow up to earn a below-average income, and only 6 per
[Trudy Rubin] Areas to watch for progress in 2011

Jan 5, 2011

I hope that 2011 will provide better foreign policy stories than 2010 did.Consider this woeful litany: The continuing fighting in Afghanistan, the jihadis and floods of Pakistan, a recovering but deeply troubled Iraq, a nuclear-bent Iran that crushed the “Green” opposition. Add a failed Mideast peace process, an increasingly aggressive China and regressive Russia, and a United States drawn inward
[Sanjeev Sanyal] India’s elites in legitimacy crisis amid series of scandals

Jan 5, 2011

NEW DELHI ― For a country with 1.2 billion people, India is ruled by a surprisingly small elite, which runs everything from the government to large companies and even sports bodies. But a series of scandals, some involving billions of dollars, has now seriously undermined that elite’s standing in the eyes of the Indian public.Almost anyone in a position of power in India, including well-known prin