Most Popular
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Yoon sorry for shortcomings but insists policies were right
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1 in 3 Koreans live alone, family types becoming diverse
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S. Korea ‘strongly’ protests Japan’s claim over Dokdo in diplomatic bluebook
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US 'incredibly concerned' about suspected NK-Iran military ties
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Korea, Japan finance chiefs vow to tame rampant FX market volatility
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Korean won weakens amid heightened uncertainty
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Seoul says will cut power to porn festival planned on Han River
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Sewol victims commemorated on tragedy's 10th anniversary
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K-pop group's manager dismissed for setting up spycam in theater dressing room
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Chanel, Louis Vuitton see muted growth in Korea
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[Franz Fischler] Right action to banish starvation
VIENNA ― Of the world’s almost seven billion people, about one billion are starving, owing to a long list of unfortunate local events and circumstances, together with steadily increasing demand, unpredictable weather patterns, and poor financial management. And food shortages could grow much worse, as world population is expected to reach 9 billion by 2050 or earlier.But, with the right programs,
July 21, 2011
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[Mike Hoyt] Britain’s phone-hacking scandal and newspapers
A few years ago my old boss, David Laventhol, had an extended conversation with Rupert Murdoch about newspapers. It was after some sort of big-deal journalism dinner, and they talked long after the tired waiters wished they’d go. David had a storied career in newspapers. He helped invent the Style section of the Washington Post when he was a young editor there. He was editor and publisher of Newsd
July 21, 2011
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[Omar Ashour] Libya after Gadhafi: Democratic transition not assured
BENGHAZI ― Middle Eastern autocrats routinely warn their people of rivers of blood, Western occupation, poverty, chaos, and Al Qaida if their regimes are toppled. Those threats were heard in Tunisia, Egypt, Yemen, Bahrain, Syria, and ― rendered in black-comedy style ― in Libya. But there is a strong belief across the region that the costs of removing autocracies, as high as they might be, are low
July 21, 2011
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[Steven J. Davis] Why employers are slow to fill empty positions
Bill Clinton put his finger on a distressing aspect of the U.S. jobs situation in a recent television interview. The former president remarked that openings are being filled at only half the rate of previous recessions, even though current unemployment is much higher. He stressed the bleak outlook for job-seeking construction workers and the need for retraining and skills development.He has a poin
July 21, 2011
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[William Pesek] Joke is on China as U.S.’s ‘AAA’ becomes laughable
Suddenly that $3 trillion of currency reserves looks like a bad idea. Make that very bad for China, as investors display an obvious preference for yen over dollars. That the IOUs of a debt-ridden, aging, politically adrift nation smarting from a huge earthquake and nuclear crisis seem safer than U.S. Treasuries says it all. Many investors still see China’s monster currency stash as a strength. The
July 21, 2011
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[David Ignatius] Obama’s communications gap
WASHINGTON ― A prominent Bush administration official was talking privately about Barack Obama last week: He’s probably going to win in 2012, this Republican said. He deserves credit for “going big” in the budget talks and capturing the center of the debate. But why isn’t he projecting his goals and philosophy more clearly to the country? Why does he so often seem to react, rather than lead? Given
July 20, 2011
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[Jeffrey Goldberg] Michele Bachmann’s hazardous love for Israel
Michele Bachmann, the Minnesota congresswoman and Republican candidate for president, is making a muscular showing in the polls. She is telegenic. She is clever. Some of her Republican opponents worry she may be unstoppable. But never fear, oh Republican opponents of Michele Bachmann: I’ve devised a fail-safe way to bring her to a state of cognitive paralysis. This method will require some travel
July 20, 2011
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[Kim Jong-han] A national leader should have vision
Although the presidential election in South Korea is more than a year away and a field of politicians vying to succeed current President Lee Myung-bak includes more than a dozen candidates, one name surfaces repeatedly as the likely winner. Rarely in modern Korean presidential politics has one unannounced candidate become so dominant over the rest of the competition more than a year before the ele
July 20, 2011
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[Sheril Kirshenbaum] Facebook might be to blame for your divorce
In the 1960s, young Americans questioned social traditions one after another, ringing in the feminist movement and celebrating sexual freedom. Today they have become the divorced generation. While the overall divorce rate in the U.S. has declined over the past 20 years, it has doubled for Americans aged 50 and over. Today, more than one in three in this category has ended a marriage. No doubt, the
July 20, 2011
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[Carmen M. Reinhart and Kenneth S. Rogoff] Too much debt means the economy can’t grow
As public debt in advanced countries reaches levels not seen since the end of World War II, there is considerable debate about the urgency of taming deficits with the aim of stabilizing and ultimately reducing debt as a percentage of gross domestic product. Our empirical research on the history of financial crises and the relationship between growth and public liabilities supports the view that cu
July 20, 2011
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[Glyn Ford] EU’s food aid for North Koreans
The European Union announced on the July 4 that it was to provide 10 million euros ($14.3 million) of emergency food aid to North Korea to be distributed through the World Food Program over the next three months ― until the end of September, just prior to the arrival of this year’s harvest. This aid represents a much delayed response to an initial request for humanitarian assistance sent by Foreig
July 19, 2011
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[Simon Johnson] Contagion in three forms now has grip on Europe
There are three types of contagion in a financial crisis, when the potential collapse of a firm, bank or country threatens to spiral out of control. The European Union today has all three. The first type is purely psychological ― the panic of herd behavior. The second comes from thinking through the real effects that a collapse would have, as the potential spillovers dawn on people. The third, and
July 19, 2011
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[Kim Seong-kon] Unstoppable heart, soft generation
The other day while walking on the campus of Seoul National University, I saw a big poster put up by the College of Humanities Student Association. The poster harshly criticized the incorporation plan of the university scheduled to be effective as of 2012, asserting that students do not want any radical change on campus.Then I found an amusingly contradictory signature at the bottom of the poster:
July 19, 2011
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[Khaled Diab] Arab Spring stops short of gender revolution
JERUSALEM ― In the early days of the Egyptian revolution, Tahrir Square provided a tantalizing glimpse of what the new Egypt might look like if differences of class, religion, gender and age melted into insignificance. Muslims and Christians mingled; the old followed the young’s lead; men and women became comrades.“The social problems that have plagued Egypt for years seem to have dissolved in the
July 19, 2011
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[Olivia Hernndez] Let JYJ appear on TV
JYJ became honorary ambassadors for Jeju Island as part of its bid to become one of the New Seven Wonders of the World. JYJ started activities to promote the island and encouraged us, the fans, to vote for Jeju.As we love JYJ so much, and we also like Korea from the bottom of our hearts, we started voting for Jeju Island in order to help Korea and make JYJ happy. We did this believing and trusting
July 19, 2011
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[Casey Lartigue, Jr.] Park Chung-hee: Dictator or benevolent autocrat?
Park Chung-heeIt ain’t necessarily so. That’s what New York University economics professor William Easterly essentially says about crediting “benevolent autocrats” like South Korea’s Park Chung-hee for high growth rates.In “Benevolent Autocrats,” a provocative working paper posted in May, Easterly 1) argues that economists should be skeptical of the “benevolent autocrat” theory; (2) questions whet
July 19, 2011
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[Fidel V. Ramos] Building Pax Asia-Pacifica
MANILA ― One of the main sources of tension in Asia nowadays are the Spratly Islands in the South China Sea, where the Philippines, Vietnam, China, and others have conflicting claims. In Chinese media reports, the heightened “unfriendliness” in the region has allegedly arisen from “bad rumors and speculations” on the part of Filipino commentators. But the reality is starker: the intrusions by Chin
July 18, 2011
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Debt-ceiling denial would worsen fiscal problems
Even if the White House and congressional leaders reach a deal to raise the debt limit, they face at least two hurdles to persuading rank-and-file Republicans to go along. Some cling to a disturbing belief that the Treasury Department doesn’t need to borrow more money to keep America’s creditors happy. And many more insist that the deal must include a constitutional amendment to require a balanced
July 18, 2011
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[Meghan Daum] Jaycee Dugard and the feel-good imperative
To watch Diane Sawyer’s recent interview with Jaycee Dugard was to wonder at times if that was Dugard herself on screen or an actress hired to play the role of the quintessential survivor. Dugard was so serene and lacking in rancor that it was hard to believe she had been kidnapped at age 11 and held prisoner for 18 years, during which she was repeatedly raped and bore two children, the first when
July 18, 2011
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[Peter Singer] Progress in treatment of animals
PRINCETON ― Mahatma Gandhi acutely observed that “the greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated.” To seek to reduce the suffering of those who are completely under one’s domination, and unable to fight back, is truly a mark of a civilized society.Charting the progress of animal-welfare legislation around the world is therefore an indication of mo
July 18, 2011