[Rachel Greszler] Universal basic income is no panacea

Do we need universal basic income? Some economists say we do. They claim that UBI -- a taxpayer-funded minimum monthly payment with no strings attached -- would reduce poverty and inequality; improve physical and mental health; and provide financial security so that recipients can earn a degree, launch a business, or care for family members. But we don’t have to take their word for it. A recent UBI experiment has given us some real-world results. Nineteen counties in Texas and Illinois tes

Aug. 19, 2024

[Yoo Choon-sik] Don’t expect poor domestic demand curing itself

While South Korea's economy appears to sustain growth thanks to robust exports of a few big-ticket items, a slew of statistics released in recent weeks points to a deepening slump in domestic consumption. Against this backdrop, policy authorities seem to lack both the will and the tools to change course. Statistics Korea’s retail sales index fell 2.9 percent in volume terms during the second quarter of this year compared to the same period in 2023, marking the worst drop in 15 years s

Aug. 19, 2024

[Lee Byung-jong] Living in age of conspiracy theories

Does anybody remember the mad cow disease scare that rocked all of South Korean society 16 years ago? According to the theory, people were supposed to have melted brains if they eat US beef. Massive anti-US beef protests paralyzed downtown Seoul for weeks, crippling the administration of President Lee Myung-bak that tried to assuage the concern with scientific evidence. Fortunately, nobody I know of has died of the disease and people around me very much enjoy US beef now that is cheaper than han

Aug. 16, 2024

[Room Tone] 60 minutes to airtime

It’s a balmy afternoon sometime in 2010, and you and 40 co-workers are gathered at a scenic park on the eastern outskirts of Seoul getting ready to shoot Scene No. 45 of episode 12 of a highly-rated television drama. Despite the tranquil appearance, there is a small and pressing problem: Episode 12 is scheduled to air later tonight. The director of photography (DP) is desperately staring up at the sky; if they don’t finish shooting in the next 45 minutes, they will lose the sun to

Aug. 15, 2024

[Hello India] India and S. Korea: Forging stronger ties for brighter future

As we commemorate the 77th anniversary of Independence Day for India, I extend my heartfelt greetings to all fellow citizens, the vibrant Indian diaspora in the Republic of Korea, and our esteemed Korean friends. This day also marks the 79th anniversary of Liberation Day for Korea, and I wish its people and government continued success, good health and prosperity. Over the years, the ROK has achieved impressive success across all fields of human endeavor, particularly advanced manufacturing, t

Aug. 15, 2024

[Kwang W. Kim] Korea needs a new social contract

In my last essay for The Korea Herald, I introduced the idea of the "Paradox on the Han River." To understand South Korea today, one must squarely face two contradictory realities. One is of incredible success, a rag-to-riches story with global brands, an addictive K-culture and a rising power at the Olympics. Political progress followed this success. Korea is a rare nation in the modern era with a conviction around constitutional democracy. At the same time, Korea’s youth is cha

Aug. 15, 2024

[Wang Son-taek] Korea’s standing at Olympics over 100 years

The 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris wrapped up a 17-day run with a dazzling closing ceremony on Sunday. Although the South Korean team participated in the event with its smallest number of athletes since 1976, it exceeded expectations by winning 32 medals, including 13 gold medals. In the overall medal standings, South Korea ranked eighth, placing itself among the ranks of France, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Italy and Germany as one of the top 10 sports powers. It may look natural now to

Aug. 14, 2024

[Kim Seong-kon] We should think big and global

The way we perceive things is often provincial and parochial rather than global and universal. We assume that people in other countries think the same way as we do. In many cases, however, foreigners think differently due to cultural differences. Therefore, we need to think big and global, while embracing different opinions and perspectives. Our love of ivy and pine trees can be a good example. In Korea, we like ivy because it decorates a building beautifully by crawling all over it and giving i

Aug. 14, 2024

[Kathryn Anne Edwards] America's fertility policy gap is bad economics

Even if you didn’t care about or respect women’s choices when it comes to having children, the “childless cat ladies” comments from Donald Trump's running mate JD Vance are still deeply problematic because they suggest a misunderstanding of a vital policy issue: fertility. To the extent that this deeply personal choice can be aggregated and tracked, it is akin to a performance measure of the economy -- and the data is flashing red. The US fertility rate has been fall

Aug. 14, 2024

[Grace Kao] What it’s like to ride in a driverless car

Waymo One is the first “autonomous ride-hailing service” available to customers. It advertises itself as offering a safer ride and allowing the autonomy of “people who can’t drive -- whether elderly, blind, or disabled -- to get around and do the things they love.” While many of us are cautiously optimistic and sometimes fearful of technology, in this particular case, I couldn‘t agree more with Google, the parent company of Waymo One. Recently, I visited San F

Aug. 13, 2024

[Lee Kyong-hee] A Japanese way of facing history

The tumultuous history of the Korean Peninsula can be seen through a myriad of prisms. In some cases that defy conventional wisdom. Well-educated Koreans in the South moved willingly to the communist North before the Korean War and stayed. One exceptional case caught the attention of Ryuta Itagaki, a professor of historical anthropology, and the outcome is an illuminating saga of a prominent linguist. In 2010, Itagaki, then a visiting scholar at the Harvard-Yenching Institute, met Kim Hye-young,

Aug. 12, 2024

[Karishma Vaswani] People power has won in Bangladesh, for now

Sheikh Hasina could have left gracefully. Instead, Bangladesh’s prime minister resigned and fled to neighboring India, ending her 15-year-long rule as chaos has engulfed the nation. The army wasted no time stepping in to form an interim government, although what shape that will take is still unclear. The military needs to find a swift path to a peaceful transfer of power. Any delay will risk damaging the country’s reputation with the international financial community even further --

Aug. 12, 2024

[Robert Fouser] Some changes in Korean since the 1980s

Languages change all the time, and Korean is no exception. In the age of social media, words that go viral quickly become mainstream, but other changes happen slowly and are hard to notice. I started learning Korean in 1983, and the 41 years since then have revealed a number of interesting changes. The most obvious change is the decline in the use of Chinese characters. In the early 1980s, Chinese characters were much more common in newspapers, books and street signs. Newspapers used vertical te

Aug. 9, 2024

[Wang Son-taek] Humanitarianism will prevail

In August 2024, two fevers rage on the Korean Peninsula. One is the summer heat wave that hits the Peninsula every year. After the rainy season in late July, the heat wave pressures people to refrain from outdoor activities at higher than 35 degrees Celsius. The other is stories about the Olympics being held in Paris, France. Koreans were cold-hearted at the beginning of the Olympics, but the reports of adding gold medals every day standing around sixth place in medal earnings revived their nati

Aug. 8, 2024

[Kim Seong-kon] Waiting for truly great leaders

The whole world is now watching the political leaders who are dividing the world into “us” and “them”; who pretend that they are saviors who can deliver the people from the miseries inflicted upon them by the privileged or the establishment. Populists in essence, those politicians are posing as messiahs who can bring back the good old days to the disappointed, nostalgic people. Their slogan is invariably a variation of “Make our country glorious again,” whethe

Aug. 7, 2024

[Grace Kao] Vance’s ‘childless cat ladies’ make memes for democracy

Who doesn’t love a good cat meme? In a 2021 interview with Fox News, US Vice Presidential Candidate JD Vance referred to Democrats as “a bunch of childless cat ladies who are miserable at their own lives and the choices that they've made and so they want to make the rest of the country miserable too.” Later he adds, “It's just a basic fact -- you look at Kamala Harris, Pete Buttigieg, AOC -- the entire future of the Democrats is controlled by people without chil

Aug. 6, 2024

[Marc Champion] Russia’s prisoner trade

Take a good look at the lists of prisoners exchanged between Kremlin and the White House. If, after that, you still find yourself admiring President Vladimir Putin for his strength and despising US alliances for their “weak” liberalism, you need help. Putin went in person to Moscow’s Vnukovo International Airport to hug Vadim Krasikov as he stepped off the plane that brought him home. Krasikov is the “patriot” Putin has sought to free ever since the former was convi

Aug. 6, 2024

[Career compass] 'You can only succeed by making others successful'

Readers have requested interviews with successful individuals about their career journeys. For this column, I had the pleasure of interviewing Park Hee-je, managing director of Kohler Novita Korea, a leading global bathroom products company. Park began his career in marketing at P&G Korea, later moving on to eBay and Philips. His professional journey has taken him to Japan, Thailand and Vietnam, gaining valuable experience in each location. I have immense respect for Park's leadership,

Aug. 5, 2024

[Sheldon H. Jacobson] Who will pay for Crowdstrike outage?

Crowdstrike did not have a good day on July 19. During a routine software update, the file that the cybersecurity firm issued triggered a logic error that prohibited Windows machines from rebooting. Microsoft estimates that around 8.5 million computers may have been affected by the event. This created a tsunami of downstream consequences, as computers that supported numerous industry operations were unable to coordinate and process data. For air travel, the net effect was the cancellation of mor

Aug. 5, 2024

[Yoo Choon-sik] Central bank independence and government policy

In countries like South Korea that adopt the presidential system of government, the president can wield much stronger power than the prime minister under the parliamentary system because the president usually rules for a fixed period. Accordingly, comments by the president or presidential officials on specific issues can carry a much stronger and wider impact on people’s lives as well as financial markets. At the same time, their comments sometimes have a different type and magnitude of im

Aug. 5, 2024