The parliamentary impeachment of President Park Geun-hye tells us two important things regarding the political crisis caused by a corruption scandal involving her civilian confidante and friend Choi Soon-sil. The first is that Park was all but finished. About 80 percent of lawmakers, including half of the members of her own ruling party, lined up to impeach her. Regardless of the Constitutional Court’s decision on her fate, Park is destined to be remembered as one of the worst presidents since t

PARIS -- Former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher once famously declared: “In politics, if you want anything said, ask a man. If you want anything done, ask a woman.”Or perhaps you should ask an independent entrepreneur.The ultimate man of action, international businessman and US President-elect Donald Trump, won the White House on a Thatcher-like platform of restoring free market economics and returning power to the middle and working classes. After the United Kingdom’s Brexit vote earli

Is President Park Geun-hye working toward her own undoing? One cannot but raise the question as she, already devoid of effective leadership as the chief executive, keeps taking missteps that could drag her -- and the nation -- into a deeper quagmire.   Park on Wednesday nominated Kim Byong-joon, a liberal professor who held key posts during the Roh Moo-hyun administration, as new prime minister. Park also named Yim Jong-yong, head of the Financial Services Commission, as the new deputy prime min

If you’re a high school student deciding where to apply for college, or the parent of a student, you’ve probably done a fair amount of research. Even so, there are some schools that may have escaped your notice, such as MCPHS University, LIU Brooklyn, Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology and Babson College.You say you need Google to learn where some of those schools are located? That’s the point: Excellence and prestige aren’t synonyms. And what do these relatively obscure institutions (take no o

The big disappointment in the world economy today is the low rate of investment. In the years leading up to the 2008 financial crisis, growth in high-income countries was propelled by spending on housing and private consumption. When the crisis hit, both kinds of spending plummeted, and the investments that should have picked up the slack never materialized. This must change.After the crisis, the world’s major central banks attempted to revive spending and employment by slashing interest rates.

Many foreigners, especially those hailing from Western countries, seem to digress from the whole point of the Choi Soon-sil and President Park Geun-hye fiasco that has brought chaos to Korea. Although it is understandable that Western media may be overwhelmed with the sudden surge of information uploaded on a daily basis by the Korean media, it is absolutely unforgivable how they have distorted the real issue at stake. Korea is not like the United States or Europe. There is no national religion

If a millennial voter goes to the polls but isn’t allowed to take a ballot selfie to document the moment on social media, did it really happen? More important, is democracy imperiled?We’re sort of teasing about young people’s obsession with smartphone cameras. We’re serious about believing voters have a constitutional right to take pictures of themselves in a voting booth with a completed ballot.You might be surprised to learn there is an active question surrounding the legality of ballot selfie

[TOKYO COLUMN] I cannot say I represent all overseas Koreans, but as one of them, I dare say I am embarrassed out of my mind about “Choi Soon-sil Gate.”Many of my Japanese friends want to know what’s going on, especially with the Japanese media, where anything negative on Korea is usually amplified, broadcasting President Park Geun-hye’s inappropriate relations with Choi Soon-sil day and night. But if it’s only about the embarrassment, I can stand it for a few months. If only there were a promis

There was a remarkable moment on the floor of the United Nations last week. As the General Assembly prepared for its annual vote to denounce the US trade embargo against Cuba, US Ambassador Samantha Power announced that for the first time, the US would abstain rather than vote against it.　The U.S. has always voted “no” on this measure — every year for the 25 years that it’s come up. And this year’s abstention put the Obama administration in direct conflict with Congress, which has been the drivi

Here in France, members of the deeply entrenched establishment elite are confident that the result of next week‘s American presidential election is a foregone conclusion. They’re convinced that the American people will reject “vulgarity.”　Former French Minister of Foreign Affairs Hubert Vedrine, a permanent establishment fixture, declared to BFM TV: “There is little chance that (Trump) will be elected -- it‘s evident. With his behavior, his aggressiveness, his insane vulgarity -- let’s say the w

More and more foreign countries are watching South Korea and the Blue House during this indescribably disgraceful time for Koreans.  The scandal involves President Park Geun-hye and her nongovernment confidante Choi Soon-sil. More than a week ago, evidence emerged that Choi had meddled in a variety of government affairs. But Park has yet to publicize her stance on the matter after making a lax apology to the public a week ago.There is no lawmaker from the ruling Saenuri Party who officially dema

“We’re going to walk you to your car,” said the smiling woman in front of me at the grocery store, as she and her husband took the bags from my hands.She had seen me struggling to balance my toddler, who was fussing over her balloon, on my hip while pushing my infant in her stroller and carrying three sacks of groceries to my minivan.I was grateful for the help, but in that moment I remember thinking, “How did this become my life?”I know I’m not alone in that sentiment -- the sense that after ch

Germany is known as a country of cutting-edge technology, remarkable preciseness and well-established law and order. To me, however, Germany has always been a land of great writers and masterpieces, such as Goethe’s “Faust” or Schiller’s “The Robbers.” In college, I was fascinated by the soul-searching poems of Rilke, and the bittersweet agonies of Hesse’s protagonists such as Knulp, Goldmund or Siddhartha. I was also enchanted by the absurd predicaments of the modern man Kafka depicted in “Meta

Donald Trump has taken a battering ram to longstanding political norms -- the unwritten conventions that make governance possible. But even before he decided to run for president, those norms were under assault. Immediately after the election, one of the most pressing questions will be how to restore them.To answer that question, let’s assume what philosophers call a “veil of ignorance.” If we didn’t know whether the president would be Democratic or Republican -- if it could turn out to be Clint

Blackstone CEO Tony James recently published a column in the Financial Times titled “To revive America’s economy, raise interest rates.” This is a very bad idea.Let us imagine that we have been transported to a parallel universe, one where the US Federal Reserve has not held interest rates at or near zero. Instead, this Fed has gradually raised interest rates for the past six years, and the federal funds rate is now 400 basis points higher than it currently is. Before looking at what this altern

Many people say that Korea’s lowest point in recent history was in November 1997 when the country, reeling from the financial crisis, had to apply for special loans from the International Monetary Fund. November 2016 has now reached a new low. The 1997 financial crisis is something that can be explained in a logical way: policy misjudgment, capital flow mismatch, and slow reform in the financial market. In contrast, the recent scandal surrounding President Park Geun-hye and Choi Soon-sil has no

In July, Republican James Comey was the toast of the Democratic Party. That was after he announced that “no reasonable prosecutor” would bring criminal charges against Hillary Clinton for allowing emails with classified information to be stored on a private server. Party leaders praised the FBI director’s independence.Now, many of Clinton’s supporters argue, as Republicans did over the summer, that Comey has terrible judgment and is playing politics.Overblown reactions are standard fare in polit

The scandal surrounding Choi Soon-sil and President Park Geun-hye is battering the nation. Many Korean citizens, already in a state of shock, anger and despair, are fearful of what is to come. This is a crisis not only for Park, but for the entire nation.As more allegations continue to surface that the president let Choi exert undue influence over key state affairs, the public is becoming more restless. The recent petitions calling for Park to step down and street marches by angry college studen

A few weeks back, Time magazine ran a story titled “The Truth Is Out There in 2016. Way Out There.” It begins with a vignette about a Donald Trump backer in North Carolina who believes climate change is a hoax, drug cartels control the government and, because it has just popped up as a headline on his so-called smartphone, that Obama has announced plans to seek a third presidential term.　The Trump backer, Allan Thiel, complains that “people aren’t being taught history anymore” and “they’ve dumbe

Korea’s relations with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations have gone from strength to strength. Korea initiated sectoral dialogue relations in 1989 and is today a key strategic partner of ASEAN.Now the ASEAN Community is being realized and the 2015 Kuala Lumpur Declaration on a People-Oriented, People-Centered ASEAN has demonstrated the ASEAN leaders’ intention to transform the regional body into an institution that prioritizes its peoples’ concerns, what role can Korea play to support th