Most Popular
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1 in 3 Koreans live alone, family types becoming diverse
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Korea, Japan finance chiefs vow to tame rampant FX market volatility
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US 'incredibly concerned' about suspected NK-Iran military ties
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K-pop group's manager dismissed for setting up spycam in theater dressing room
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K-pop singer lost consciousness after being hit by foul ball, cancels show
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Korean Muslim YouTuber's plan to build mosque in Incheon goes viral
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Contentious grain bill put directly to plenary meeting for vote
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Why is Apple Pay struggling to get purchase in Korea?
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Yoon's office denies considering liberal figures for key posts
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Seoul says Fu Bao loan 'not going to happen'
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[Peter Allen, Barry Eichengreen and Gary Evans] Europe’s plan does nothing to reduce Greek debt
Postmortems of last month’s European Union summit meeting have now turned to why the Greek debt rescue failed to restore investor confidence in the country’s finances. Many reasons are advanced: the failure to communicate clearly; the complexity of the plan; the inability to coordinate with th
Aug. 8, 2011
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[Editorial] S&P’s dubious downgrade
We’ll find out soon enough what the markets will make of the decision by Standard & Poor’s to downgrade its rating of U.S. sovereign debt to AA+ from AAA. But the early response from the people who matter most in the controversy ― the Asian and European nations that Hoover up Treasuries ― seems to s
Aug. 8, 2011
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[Thomas Klassen] Learning from the labor dispute at SC First Bank
The bitter seven week strike at SC First Bank, the longest in the Korean banking industry, reveals deep divisions between workers and management. More importantly, it exposes critical choices that workers, employers and government must make in the next few years.The planned introduction of a perform
Aug. 8, 2011
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[Michael Boskin] The Euro-American debt dilemma
PALO ALTO ― Wealthy Europe and America, crown jewels of mixed capitalist democracies, are drowning in deficits and debt, owing to bloated welfare states that are now in place (Europe) or in the making (the United States). As Europe struggles to prevent financial contagion and America struggles to re
Aug. 7, 2011
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[Peter Goldmark] Can we even govern ourselves?
You’ve read about cults that lose touch with reality and gather on some hilltop to greet the end of the world.We have a large cult-like group in the House of Representatives who have lost touch with economic reality and whose delusions may cause the country they say they love incalculable harm.Even
Aug. 7, 2011
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[Editorial] Lackluster investigation
The parliamentary investigation into the savings bank scandal has virtually ended without uncovering anything about the massive irregularities at the suspended banks. The outcome is disappointing, to say the least, and all the more so given the prosecution’s failure to answer a host of questions reg
Aug. 7, 2011
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[Shlomo Ben Ami] Middle East’s new game about democracy
MADRID ― Whether or not the Arab Spring will usher in credible democracies across the Arab world remains uncertain. But, while the dust has not yet settled after months of turmoil in Tunis, Cairo and elsewhere, the Arab revolts have already had a massive impact on the strategic structure of the Midd
Aug. 7, 2011
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[Laurence Kotlikoff] Generational balance, not budget balance
Debt crises make great drama. The big shots attend meetings, look terribly worried, then stomp out, accusing each other of bad faith. Finally, at the witching hour, they reach agreement and tell us all is fine, for now. The tough thing is sorting out what’s really going on. In the U.S. case, the ans
Aug. 7, 2011
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[William Pesek] Let’s get Homer Simpson’s hands off the controls
Japanese executives aren’t known for bucking the establishment. Hiroshi Mikitani is a rare exception at a time when rebellion is most needed. The president of Rakuten Inc., Japan’s biggest online retailer, turned 46 on March 11. That was the day when a record earthquake and tsunami set off the worst
Aug. 7, 2011
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[Robert Reich] The U.S. social security reform
House Republicans want to put Social Security on the chopping block in order to help reduce the long-term budget deficit, and the president seems willing to agree.That we’ve reached this point reveals both the cravenness of the GOP’s demands and the callowness of the opposition to those demands.In a
Aug. 5, 2011
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[Editorial] Japan’s economic white paper calls for resilience
The fiscal 2011 government white paper on the economy and state finances, issued July 22, analyzes economic conditions in the wake of the March 11 disasters. It calls for the creation of an economy resilient to crises and makes some policy proposals; however, the proposals are too general in the con
Aug. 5, 2011
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[Editorial] Fast rail as a metaphor for authoritarian China
What began as a transport accident in the busy rail corridor of Zhejiang province is turning into a test of China’s authoritarian methods of preserving stability. Should the old template of information control prevail? Is it even possible? Mastery of online media by citizens is weakening notions of
Aug. 5, 2011
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[Yuriko Koike] China trains unsafe at any speed?
TOKYO ― At least 38 people were killed and more than 200 injured by the recent crash of two high-speed trains near Zhenzhou in Zhejiang, a province in China. The wrecked body of the ruined train was buried immediately afterward, with no investigation.The intellectual-property dispute between Japan a
Aug. 5, 2011
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[Editorial] Small sigh of relief over raised U.S. debt ceiling
Over the past few months, the world has watched with uneasiness and frustration the political drama unfolding in Washington, capital of the world’s largest economy. The fierce partisan debate over raising the debt ceiling was so ugly that it threatened to hold hostage not only the United States’ own
Aug. 5, 2011
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[Editorial] Thorny road ahead for Afghan self-determination
Nation-building efforts in Afghanistan face a major turning point.The administration of U.S. President Barack Obama has started withdrawing troops stationed in Afghanistan. European and other countries helping to maintain security in Afghanistan will follow suit in reducing their military presence.T
Aug. 5, 2011
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[Editorial] America cannot afford to let Pakistan go rogue
To a developing country drifting towards catastrophe as it tries to hold together under assaults from domestic threats and terrorism, $800 million is a lot of money.And so when the Obama administration decided to punish Pakistan by suspending $800 million of its annual $2 billion security aid, one w
Aug. 5, 2011
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[David Ignatius] Hollywood’s vanishing act
WASHINGTON ― We are living in what New York Times called “a golden age of foreign films.” But American audiences wouldn’t know it unless they are lucky enough to live near an art-house cinema, or can tolerate subtitles on rented DVDs. The rising quality of foreign films over the past several ye
Aug. 4, 2011
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[Gregory Rodriguez] Zero-sum games in an interconnected world
What’s wrong with this picture: Even as the world is becoming increasingly interconnected and interdependent, we seem to be approaching conflicts more in zero-sum terms and with all-or-nothing politics.Because digital networks and the global economy have humans more tightly bound than any time in th
Aug. 4, 2011
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[Naomi Wolf ] America’s reactionary feminists
NEW YORK ― It is obvious that the left and the media establishment in the United States cannot fully understand the popular appeal of the two Republican tigresses in the news ― first Sarah Palin, and now, as she consolidates her status as a Republican presidential front-runner, Michele Bachmann. Wha
Aug. 4, 2011
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[Meghan Daum] The siren song of Google+ to Web surfers
Google+, which launched a month ago to great fanfare, is so far feeling more like Google nonplussed. Reported to have crossed the 20-million-user mark two weeks ago, the new social networking site is designed to correct one of Facebook’s major drawbacks: the problem of too much information being sha
Aug. 4, 2011