Both in the real world and in the corridors of power, the consensus is that the congressional supercommittee will fail to compromise this week on how to close the country’s multi-trillion-dollar federal budget deficit and, as a result, a series of cuts, totaling $1.2 trillion, will automatically kick in. Many people believe this failure to act will short-circuit what little hope exists for an economic recovery. And it will be yet another demonstration of the inability of our political parties to

Who are the winners and losers in the dramatic and evolving turmoil in the Middle East? For the citizens of Arab world the way ahead may yet be rough and unpredictable, but events represent a major net gain in breaking away from the frozen, sterile and crushing old orders.But with the breakup of the old Middle East system on the international level, who wins and who loses?The biggest single loser, hands down, is Israel. Many of the old dictators propped up by U.S. money and political support to

ABU DHABI ― The leading Republican candidates were weirdly overt with their promises in last weekend’s debate about waging covert war against Iran, and even assassinating its scientists. Perhaps it’s a sign that foreigners don’t take American politics very seriously, but the inflammatory talk created barely a ripple in this part of the world. Or maybe the savvy, cynical Middle East believes that the covert war has already begun ― with Israel’s Mossad conducting lethal operations of the sort Repu

If we call the 20th century the age of physics and chemistry, the 21st century will be the age of biotechnology. Since Dr. James Watson and Dr. Francis Crick discovered the DNA double helix in 1953, biology has made great progress. Nowadays, so-called biotechnology can clone a life form in addition to manipulating genes. Since the first cloned sheep Dolly came into being in 1996 in Britain, also in Korea, a cloned cow Youngrongie and a cloned dog Snuppy have been “born” in succession.Moreover, K

LONDON ― The gravity of the eurozone crisis has finally sunk in. The stakes could not be higher. Governments and international financial institutions have scrambled to put together a solution within exceedingly tight political and economic constraints. Many questions have yet to be answered about the design; implementation will be at least as challenging.Eurozone leaders must now aim to preserve not only the single currency, but also the gains from financial integration in Europe. No region of t

We cannot overemphasize the importance of enhancing the productivity of small and medium-sized companies. Currently, Korea faces an explosion in welfare demands. With its limited budget, the government can hardly meet this challenge. The most effective solution to this problem is to create more jobs, since the best welfare program is a job. In Korea, SMEs account for 90 percent of employment. Hence, to create more jobs, the first step is to boost the job creation potential of SMEs. SMEs can crea

Since January, the government has been waging an uphill battle to bring down the prices of retail petroleum products. Its efforts culminated earlier this month when the Ministry of Knowledge Economy announced a plan to convert 10 percent of Korea’s gas stations ― 1,300 outlets ― into discount gas stations by 2015. The scheme is aimed at infusing competition in the domestic market, which the ministry thinks is being dominated by a cartel of four refiners ― SK Energy, GS-Caltex, S-Oil and Hyundai

The Occupy Wall Street that is happening now in New York resembles a familiar episode that I witnessed in Seoul. As Yogi Berra said, this is like dj vu all over again!When my long stay in Seoul on a project started in the beginning of 2008, the new administration was elected but had not yet taken the office. The Korean democracy at work allowed a smooth transition to the new government, with befitting joyous ceremonies.Shortly after the new government was sworn in, some major shifts in policies

NEW DELHI ― The recent Indian-Italian bilateral dialogue, held in Milan on Nov. 7, at a time when Italy was reeling from the euro crisis and Silvio Berlusconi’s impending political demise, offered a fraught reminder of the potential, and the limits, of India’s relationship with the European Union.India has a long history of relations with Europe, going back to the days of the Roman Empire. Its southwestern state of Kerala boasted a Roman port, Muziris, centuries before Jesus Christ was born; exc

It is essential for Japan to pursue strategic diplomacy with the United States and China if effective international rules are to be worked out to ensure peace and prosperity in the Asia-Pacific region.Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda met with U.S. President Barack Obama in Honolulu Saturday on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit and explained to him a government plan to submit to Okinawa Prefecture within this year an environmental assessment report on the planned

The series of meetins held by the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) starting in Bali, Indonesia, on Thursday, should be an opportunity for participants to expand common ground and explore new areas of cooperation, so that the region can better contribute to regional and global development and stability. ASEAN’s traditional dialogue partners, China, Japan and South Korea, will participate and Russia and the United States have been invited to take part for the first time. Despite the

Last Friday, before leaving for the 19th Leaders’ Summit of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum in Honolulu, Philippine President Benigno Aquino III said that the meeting would help solve the problems of the Philippines. He mentioned in particular economic growth, job creation, regulatory reforms, competitiveness and protection from the turbulence that has swept the European Union.Well, indeed he may be getting some ideas on how to solve the problems of the country from the strategies, p

While European and North American leaders struggle to regain fiscal credibility by cutting back social entitlements, those of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) meet in Bali this week at a historic turning point, an economic coming of age for their region, which may require them to move in the opposite direction.Asia remains by far the most dynamic region in the world and the locomotive of global growth. Its growth rate is one and a half times that of any other region. But this g

The main opposition Democratic Party has rejected President Lee Myung-bak’s proposal that he would seek renegotiation with Washington on a contentious clause in the Korea-U.S. free trade agreement if the DP cooperates in ratifying the trade pact.Lee made the offer at a meeting with leaders of the ruling Grand National Party and the DP on Tuesday. He made a rare visit to the National Assembly to break the impasse over the ratification of the KORUS FTA.He was quoted as saying that “if the Assembly

Korea’s self-employment rate is one of the highest in the OECD. In 2008, self-employment accounted for 31.3 percent of the nation’s total employment, almost double the OECD average of 15.8 percent.In most OECD countries, self-employment rates have been falling since 1990. The higher a country’s per capita GDP, the lower its self-employment rate tends to be.In Korea, self-employment had been on the decline since 1998. In particular, the pace of decline accelerated during the 2008-09 global financ

NEW DELHI ― Inspired by Anna Hazare’s hunger strike, thousands of people gathered at Ramlila Grounds in New Delhi to protest governmental corruption. Protesters here and around the country pressed for a specific political change ― a new institution to combat corruption ― and, in principle, they won. Parliament passed a resolution accepting their demands and is now drafting a bill accordingly.But the demonstrations were also motivated by a larger aspiration, one that is more difficult to achieve:

The biggest question in America these days is how to revive the economy.The biggest question among activists now occupying Wall Street and dozens of American cities is how to strike back against the nation’s almost unprecedented concentration of income, wealth and political power in the top 1 percent.The two questions are related. With so much income and wealth concentrated at the top, the vast middle class no longer has the purchasing power to buy what the economy is capable of producing. (Peop

PARIS ― It seems the “success” of the Libyan campaign has again whetted the appetite of Western powers to intervene more aggressively in Iranian affairs. However, the threat of military intervention and the use of economic sanctions that bring suffering for ordinary Iranians only strengthens the grip of Iran’s mafia regime on its power. Any leader who implicitly or explicitly advocates such policies therefore, in effect, plays into the hands of a fragile regime that can only sustain itself throu

Right now, China is obsessed with the Occupy Wall Street movement, deathly afraid that it will spread there. How can I tell?The China Daily recently ran a column headlined: “U.S. Media Blackout of Protest is Shameful.” The Lexis-Nexis news service shows that on the very day that column ran, the American news media carried 282 stories about the movement, and in the weeks before, the total was 631.So I called the author, Chen Weihua, deputy editor of China Daily USA. He’s based in New York.“Well,

DUSHANBE, Tajikistan ― Kidnapping the woman you want to marry is a well-known, if illegal, tradition in parts of Central Asia. Until recently, such abductions occurred mainly among ethnic Kyrgyzs and Kazaks.But now the idea seems to be catching on among Tajiks as well.“Our neighbor was abducted on her wedding day by the guy who was in love with her,” said Qaisiddin, a resident of the Jirgatal district in Tajikistan. “No one knows where he took her.”According to the resident of this district with