As all of us watched the US presidential debates and await the outcome of the elections in early November with bated breath, I was struck by how much the world is moving on different planes. Trump and Hillary are trading insults with each other, giving democratic politics a bad name. In the meantime, Hong Kong Legislative Council members are literally swearing at each other over oath-taking, while Philippine President Duterte called President Obama a name not normally used in polite company.  At

It’s not about one person and it never was. I don’t care who that person is or was, it has always been of the people, for the people and by the people.　It is what our founding fathers had in mind when they penned the US Constitution. They knew then what we keep forgetting — that the greatness of this country was going to depend upon a village, not a chief.　So they carefully crafted a living document that would keep any one man or woman from destroying what so very many men and women have given t

The Europeans — in particular, this time, the French and British — continue to labor mightily with the major problem that migrants from the wars of the Middle East and of poverty in Africa continue to pose for them.　A million came in 2015.　Some 6,000 of them clustered in Calais, a city in France on the English Channel, close to the United Kingdom. Their goal was not to settle in France, but to be as well positioned as possible to seek asylum in the UK. This they wanted for a variety of reasons.

No one likes to admit defeat. But global policymakers, who continue to insist that there’s more they can do to revive growth and inflation, are starting to sound like Monty Python’s Black Knight, the limbless and mortally wounded warrior who threatens to bleed on his victorious opponent. The truth is that governments and central banks have very few weapons left -- and have probably lost any chance they once had of averting a prolonged stagnation.　Clearly, the real economy hasn’t responded as hop

Bank of Korea Gov. Lee Ju-yeol convened an irregular meeting of senior officials at the central bank last Thursday to discuss pending economic issues.The Finance Ministry -- in coordination with the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport -- plans to unveil measures to stabilize the heated property market this Thursday with assistance from the BOK and the Financial Services Commission.President Park Geun-hye is seen as being too caught up with handling her own scandal, in which she allege

The French mathematician Blaise Pascal famously said, “It is not certain that everything is uncertain.” Had he been around for Brexit, he might not be so sure. While a moderate outcome remains likely, uncertainty and animosity have been on the rise in recent weeks. This is the Brexit paradox: The longer it takes for pragmatism to re-enter the debate, the higher the chance that the chilling effect of the unknown will cause permanent damage to both the United Kingdom and the European Union.This wa

In recent months, nongovernmental organizations and journalists have accused the United Nations of bias toward Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s regime and failure to distribute humanitarian aid to rebel-controlled areas of Syria. To an extent, these criticisms are justified. The UN does work closely with the Syrian government, and humanitarian aid has not consistently reached areas outside of government control. But the detractors overlook an inherent contradiction in the UN’s responsibilities

In the United States and elsewhere nowadays, populist politicians often claim that easy monetary policy is hurting ordinary workers, thereby exacerbating income inequality. But while inequality is a problem, raising interest rates is no way to address it.To say otherwise is a strange claim for anyone to make, especially populists. After all, low interest rates benefit debtors and hurt creditors, as does the inflation that can be spurred by monetary easing. Throughout most of US history, for exam

With its debts surging and growth sluggish, China has hit on a new strategy to revitalize its ailing economy. It’s the same as the old strategy. Only this time, it won’t work.Earlier this month, China’s State Council released guidelines for a new swap program, in which companies can exchange troubled debt with banks in return for equity. The government hopes this will give the firms a chance to restructure on favorable terms, and avoid the prospect of “zombie companies” propped up indefinitely b

With most election forecasts pointing toward a victory for Hillary Clinton, her top advisers are beginning to think about how to stabilize a world that has been rocked by the US presidential campaign and by recent reversals for American power.The paradox for the Clinton team, if it wins, will be how to signal continuity with an Obama administration in which many were involved, but also a tightening of US policy so that America doesn’t appear on its “back foot” in dealing with Russia, China and o

Europe urgently needs to repair a banking system that’s weighing on the region’s economy. Governments say they understand, but they still aren’t taking the task seriously.The issue is global standards for capital -- the bedrock financing that makes banks capable of absorbing losses without going bust. Lack of capital in 2008 turned financial setbacks into a full-scale crisis. Regulators agreed on tougher capital standards back in 2010; now, the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision, which inclu

All the recent presidents here encountered difficulties in the final phase of their presidencies due to wrongdoings committed by their relatives, aides and associates. Some of them went to jail on charges of exploiting their close relationships with the president and engaging in corruption or influence-peddling. President Park Geun-hye has fallen into crisis due to the snowballing scandal that centers on her longtime associate Choi Soon-sil. For all the similarities, there is one big difference

The US and South Korea have held a ‘two-plus-two’ meeting of foreign and defence ministers in Washington, during which they positioned the improvement in North Korea’s nuclear and missile capability as ‘a direct threat’ while also announcing specific policies to deal with the situation.　The policies include a US pledge to continue providing South Korea with extended deterrence, the main pillar of which is a nuclear umbrella. The two nations have also agreed to establish high-level dialogue aimed

Goa has just played host to an impressive group of heads from different parts of the world, weighty figures who lead countries that have recently emerged into prominence and collectively bid fair to reshape processes of international cooperation. Brics, whose Summit meeting brought these high dignitaries to India, is a relatively new grouping of emerging countries -- Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa -- that is to say of countries that have come out of relative obscurity in global co

It’s time to worry when an utterly illogical proposition begins to sound half-way logical because it has been repeated over and over again, and because glaring gaps in reason have been plugged with dollops of nationalism. The ongoing cultural war between India and Pakistan, flagged off by a controversy surrounding the screening of a Bollywood film and culminating in a ban by Pakistan of all Indian content, is a case in point. The Bollywood film stars a Pakistani actor, Fawad Khan, who apparently

When America fights its wars in the Middle East, it has a nasty habit of recruiting local forces as proxies and then jettisoning them when the going gets tough or regional politics intervene. This pattern of “seduction and abandonment” is one of our least endearing characteristics. It’s one reason the US is mistrusted in the Middle East. We don‘t stick by the people who take risks on our behalf in Iraq, Egypt, Lebanon and elsewhere. And now, I fear, this syndrome is happening again in Syria, as

As the US political campaign encourages simplistic views of foreign affairs, with candidates assuming falsely that voters cannot handle the complexities, the view of China making the rounds tends to be left out a lot.In fact, that nation of 1.3 billion, with an enormous, growing economy, governed through an archaic, at least in principle highly ideological structure, tends to be so preoccupied with its own internal problems as to be virtually incapable of presenting any real threat to the United

With stinging words in Beijing against our top ally, America, President Rodrigo Duterte is taking the Philippines on a foreign policy adventure that carries with it immense socio-economic import and potentially dangerous geopolitical repercussions.If he goes beyond catchy rhetoric and actually sets in motion policies and events that cuts the Philippines’ deep and complex ties with America -- a paradigm shift that will place it firmly in the political-military orbit of such countries as the hermi

President Park Geun-hye’s brief apology Tuesday afternoon that lasted all of 1 1/2 minutes was the final blow for those who had been holding out hope that what they had seen in the news was not true. Watching Park on television admit to seeking Choi Soon-sil’s assistance made stomachs churn. She said that she consulted with Choi, who had helped her during difficult times, so as to be “thorough” and out of “pureness of heart.” If this is how Park truly views the situation, then she can be accused

The Chinese government appears to be embarking on economic retaliation against South Korea over the decision by Seoul and Washington to station the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense system on the peninsula.Beijing’s action targets the tourism industry here, as it has instructed its private travel agents to cut the number of tourists to Korea by 20 percent on-year. The state-led regulations will also reportedly include curbing low-price package tours and discouraging shopping in Korea.The trave