South Korea’s growth rate is feared to dip below the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development average for the third consecutive year this year, unless sagging exports rebound at a brisk pace. The OECD maintained Korea’s 2023 growth outlook and inflation forecast at 1.5 percent and 3.4 percent, respectively, in its interim report titled, “Confronting Inflation and Low Growth.” The interim outlook suggests there has been no meaningful change in the country&rsqu

The court last week allowed the Korean Metal Workers' Union, a member of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions, to hold an overnight rally on the street in front of the National Assembly. It was the first time the court had allowed an overnight open-air demonstration. The court accepted the application by the metal workers' union to invalidate a police ban on its overnight outdoor protest. The union had reported to the police that it would hold a rally from 9 a.m. on Sept. 20 to noo

Bank capital is back in the financial headlines. In late July, US banking regulators, led by the Federal Reserve, announced plans to finalize the so-called Basel 3 reforms (which banks like to call Basel 4, owing to their significant impact). The aim, according to a joint agency proposal, is “to improve the strength and resilience of the banking system” by modifying large capital requirements to better reflect underlying risks, and by applying more transparent and consistent requirem

The South Korean economy is set to grapple with three volatile conditions -- the so-called “three highs” -- in the coming months: higher interest rates, high energy prices and the higher value of the US dollar against the Korean currency. First and foremost, the US interest rate change is drawing keen attention from Korean policymakers and investors as its impact is potentially critical. The US Federal Reserve on Wednesday left interest rates unchanged, but signaled it may opt for on

With the coming of the annual National Electric Drive Week, we are again likely to hear politicians and proponents sing the praises of electric vehicles. EVs, we will be told, are going to change life because they are cleaner, easier to maintain and fun to drive. But here’s what we should also be discussing, although we probably won’t: There’s a giant transition on the horizon. Sixty countries, including the entire European Union, are calling for a complete ban on combustion

First-generation college students are less alone than they were a decade ago. Today, more than half of America's undergraduate students have parents who never got bachelor's degrees. Many campuses have programs to empower them, such as by connecting them with mentors, academic support and financial aid. But there's a lot more that can be done. Now that the Supreme Court has struck down race-conscious college admissions, first-generation students are a logical group for universitie

President Yoon Suk Yeol signed off on the appointments of Kim Dong-cheol as the new CEO of Korea Electric Power Corp., also known as Kepco, and Bang Moon-kyu as trade minister this week, the very two figures in charge of the highly explosive issue of electricity rate hikes. The idea of raising electricity rates is a sensitive topic for the government as many households find the sharp increase in August's electricity bills hard to swallow. This year’s lengthy heat waves forced many hou

There are more discussions that a so-called new Cold War is on the way. Similar to the Soviet-led communist bloc during the Cold War era, which confronted the US-led capitalist bloc, North Korea, China and Russia could form an international bloc against the US-led one. North Korean leader Kim Jong-un's recent visit to Russia drew attention because it was an opportunity to promote discussions of the new Cold War further. North Korea and Russia have mocked the UN Security Council's res

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s dramatic statement in parliament that there were “credible allegations” Indian intelligence was behind the murder of a radical Sikh activist in British Columbia came as a shock to many in India for a couple of reasons. For one thing, most of us still believe that we’re the good guys and our government doesn’t do this kind of thing. More importantly, if India actually did conduct an assassination on Western soil -- which its

The National Assembly is set to vote on a government request for opposition leader Lee Jae-myung to attend a pretrial detention hearing. He has promised many times to give up his privilege as a lawmaker of being able to avoid detention depending on the result of a National Assembly vote and voluntarily attend a detention hearing like ordinary people do if the prosecution sought an arrest warrant for him, but his promises were just empty words. An incumbent National Assembly member can stand tria

Since 1965, when a large number of Koreans began immigrating to the US, Los Angeles has been the undisputed center for the Korean diaspora community in America. Los Angeles means “city of angels” in Spanish and Korean immigrants have often looked to the city as a place of settling down in America. Koreans who went there overcame hardships and ordeals on foreign soil to pursue their dreams, just like pioneers in the Wild West. Given their motivation and drive, it is small wonder that

If anyone had lingering doubts about the fractured state of global rule-making, they should now be dispelled. The just-concluded G-20 summit in New Delhi attracted as much attention for who was not there -- Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping -- as for the discussions among those who showed up. But the real takeaway from the summit, as well as the gathering of the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) that preceded it, is that global rule-making is

South Korea’s tax revenue shortfall for 2023 is now estimated to stand at 59.1 trillion won ($44.6 billion), according to newly revised government data, the biggest in years. The Ministry of Finance and Economy announced Monday it has revised down its annual tax revenue projection to 341.4 trillion won, citing sluggish corporate earnings and a protracted slump in the property market. The ministry’s earlier tax revenue outlook for this year was 400.5 trillion won. The new revision ref

Ronald Reagan famously used the phrase, “There you go again,” to imply that his Democratic opponents were full of bull and hyperbole. I can't think of a more appropriate response to House Speaker Kevin McCarthy's decision to pursue an impeachment investigation into President Joe Biden, in a desperate attempt to throw MAGA House members a bone so they won't try to shut down government funding in September . Without a shred of credible evidence, the GOP will be fishing f

I realized I had a problem with internet shopping the day my 13-year-old niece looked at the packing slip in a box that had just arrived and yelled, "What -- $200 for a pair of jeans?!" I can explain. I have never spent $200 on a pair of jeans in my life. Kirkland, after all, is my couturier. But an ad for "Jetset Flare" jeans kept popping up on my Instagram feed. And my Facebook feed. I knew nothing about the brand, Frame. But I loved the way the jeans looked on the incredib

The manipulation of economic statistics by the Moon Jae-in administration, disclosed by the Board of Audit and Inspection last week after a six-month probe, is astonishing. The audit agency found that the Moon administration had persistently and widely manipulated government statistics on real estate prices, national income and employment to hide its policy failures. The board asked the prosecution to investigate 22 former Moon government officials on suspicion of leading the statistics manipula

A new legal effort to prevent Donald Trump from retaking the presidency next year is afoot. Its backers rely on Section Three of the Fourteenth Amendment of the US Constitution, which bars from office anyone who has “engaged in insurrection or rebellion … or given aid or comfort to the enemies” of the United States. Numerous lawsuits have been filed arguing that Trump’s participation in an insurrection on Jan. 6, 2021 -- either by itself or as part of a larger effort to

Military cooperation between North Korea and Russia is looming large. The recent summit between North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and Russian President Vladimir Putin is a sight showing that vague concern becomes real risk. It was a closed-door meeting and no press conference was held. Nothing is known about what they actually discussed, except for their open mention of cooperation in the field of satellites. Putin said Friday that Russia would not breach any agreements concerning the Korean Penin

Reading articles about cities around the world almost always invites comparisons with Seoul because it’s the city I know best. I lived in Seoul for 12 years at different times starting in the mid-1980s and ending in the mid-2010s. In the years I didn’t live in Seoul, I visited the city at least once a year, except for the first two years of the COVID-19 pandemic. In the 40 years that Seoul has been in my life, I’ve seen the city change and grow as South Korea has transformed it

As far as headline numbers are concerned, South Korea’s job figures for August are not so bad. In fact, the number of employed people went up last month from a year earlier. But beneath the upbeat data lies a problematic trend that continues to keep policymakers on edge. According to data released by Statistics Korea on Wednesday, the country added 268,000 new jobs in August, increasing the total of employed people to 28.67 million. The new job additions mark a much welcome rebound. In Jul