What’s with the green eyeshades? “I can’t tell you how tired I am of Republicans who are green-eyeshade accountants,” former House Speaker Newt Gingrich told Newsmax TV last weekend. Representative Paul Ryan’s “new budget road map is more vision than green-eyeshade exercise,” Larry Kudlow wrote March 15 at National Review Online, using Kudlow code to suggest that the House Budget Committee chairman has a political future. “If Paul Ryan wanted to dispel his image as a green-eyeshade guy obsessed

Sitting on a Tokyo runway last week, the captain announced that our flight would be delayed for reasons few of us could believe: sandstorms. Chuckles filled the aircraft. The woman next to me quipped: “What, are we in Egypt?” As we all craned our necks to look out the windows, it really did feel as if we were taxiing in Cairo or Marrakesh, not the capital of a Group of Seven nation. The sand is compliments of China’s boom. Thanks to deforestation and overgrazing, more and more of the Gobi Desert

It is the job of the South Korean unification minister to improve relations with North Korea, aiming at an eventual Korean reunification. Still, it was nothing less than inappropriate for a new unification minister to put an emphasis on the resumption of inter-Korean dialogue at a time when Pyongyang was threatening to turn South Korea into a “nuclear sea of fire” and launch a “second Korean War.”True, new Unification Minister Ryoo Kihl-jae did mention the high level of tension that had been esc

In a widening sex-for-favors scandal, Vice Justice Minister Kim Hak-ui tendered a letter of resignation on Thursday. While denying being involved in the scandal, Kim said his name being mentioned in connection with it made it impossible for him to continue to do his work as a vice minister.But his resignation reaffirmed that background checks by the Park Geun-hye administration on those selected for top public posts were seriously flawed. The presidential office, though informed of his alleged i

PARIS ― The European Union’s $13 billion bailout plan for Cyprus has nothing to do with socialism but rather with much greater stakes. This is the EU attempting to outmaneuver an uncharacteristically flat-footed Vladimir Putin and Russia in a key battleground, over long-festering issues: transparency, corruption, and support of Syria and Iran. This is also a case of the EU calling out a Trojan-horse country embedded inside the eurozone.In exchange for the $13 billion from the EU, Cyprus would ha

“Our biggest problems over the next 10 years are not deficits,” President Obama told House Republicans last week, according to those who attended the meeting.The president needs to deliver the same message to the public, loudly and clearly. The biggest problems we face are unemployment, stagnant wages, slow growth and widening inequality ― not deficits. The major goal must be to get jobs and wages back, not balance the budget.Rep. Paul Ryan’s budget plan is designed to lure the White House and D

The massive computer network failures at top TV broadcasters and major banks on Wednesday are another painful reminder that the nation still remains highly vulnerable to cyber terrorism even after a series of similar attacks from North Korea in recent years.According to reports, government investigators are analyzing the malicious programs they found on the crashed computer systems of the victimized companies, which included three TV broadcasters ― KBS, MBC and YTN ― and three banks ― Shinhan, N

After a long delay, President Park Geun-hye has picked a nominee to lead the Constitutional Court along with two new justice candidates to sit on the court’s nine-member bench. Park nominated Park Han-cheol, who has served as an adjudicator of the court since 2011, to become its chief justice, a post that has been left vacant for 60 days since former chief justice Lee Kang-kook retired in January.She also picked Cho Yong-ho, chief of the Seoul High Court, and Suh Ki-suhk, head of the Seoul Centr

For many in the U.S., the 10th anniversary of the invasion of Iraq has been an occasion for settling scores and playing “what-if” games with history. Iraqis don’t have that luxury ― as evidenced by the day’s wave of bombings and assassinations that left at least 50 dead. For Iraq, this anniversary underscores the need for Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and his government to find a new sense of responsibility and engagement. Otherwise, the country’s future may be as dark as its recent past. The l

WASHINGTON ― Ten years ago this week, I was covering the U.S. military as it began its assault on Iraq. As I read back over my clips, I see a few sensible warnings about the difficulties ahead. But I owe readers an apology for being wrong on the overriding question of whether the war made sense. Invading Iraq to topple Saddam Hussein a decade ago was one of the biggest strategic errors in modern American history. We’ll never know whether the story might have been different if better planning had

Love. It is a complicated thing. So when Beijing calls on Hong Kongers to ai guo, ai gang ― love the country, love Hong Kong ― what does it mean exactly? The question has roused passions here amid recent remarks by Chinese leaders.Yesterday, President Xi Jinping urged Hong Kongers to work in the larger interests of China, and help fulfil the “Chinese Dream” that will see the country’s renaissance. “When you have more people collecting firewood, the fire will leap higher,” he said in a meeting wi

Just outside President Goodluck Jonathan’s office sat 17 ambulances, just in case he or one of his aides fell ill. They were seldom if ever used.No actual health care facility nationwide had as many, and in fact a few still have none at all. But as soon as a Nigerian newspaper took a photo of the ambulances and published a story about them, they suddenly disappeared ― probably to an underground garage.Jonathan is president of Nigeria, which should be among the world’s most prosperous nations. Af

Will Shinzo Abe’s plan to revive Japan suffer the magazine-cover curse? Might Benigno Aquino meet the same fate in the Philippines? What both leaders have in common is everyone slapping the “-nomics” suffix onto their growth strategies. “Abenomics” has excited investors, not to mention the pundit class, with its aim of ending 15 years of deflation. The same is true of “Aquinomics” in a country long deemed the sick man of Asia, now an investment darling. Such bouts of euphoria often end in tears:

At various times in history, members of the U.S. Senate have adopted one of three positions with respect to presidential nominees for the federal judiciary: 1. The blank check: A senator should vote to confirm anyone the president chooses. 2. The competence and character test: A senator should vote to confirm anyone the president chooses, unless the nominee is incompetent or suffers from a fatal character flaw (as demonstrated, for example, by corruption). 3. The out-of-the-mainstream test: A se

Newspaper readers know that the Park Geun-hye government needs at least 135 trillion won ($120 billion) over the next five years to carry out welfare programs pursued by the new president. Rather than increasing taxes on the rich (or reducing the scale of tax cut for larger businesses), the new administration will concentrate its efforts on exposing tax sources hidden in the “underground economy.” It is a good policy for which everyone breathing in this country can play a part because we all are

As the National Assembly is to pass the government reorganization bill today, President Park Geun-hye will be able to launch her pet ministry as planned. But it is questionable whether the new ministry, dubbed the Ministry of Future Creation and Science, will be able to play its expected role.That is because the ministry will not be created in the form envisioned by the president. Its scope of business and power have been curtailed in the process of negotiations between the ruling Saenuri Party

Recent months have seen the world’s major countries making fresh moves to reshape the global trade landscape. As these developments pose serious challenges to Korea, the new Seoul government needs to assess their implications carefully and draw up countermeasures. Among the latest developments, the most notable one may be Japan’s decision to participate in Trans-Pacific Partnership free trade negotiations. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe announced his bold decision on March 15. The TPP is a comprehens

In Seoul, a somber reflection on the past 20 years imbues the minds of the people. To many here, the third nuclear test by North Korea on Feb. 12 was an official proclamation that the strategies of Washington and Seoul for the past two decades to deter the Pyongyang regime from acquiring nuclear weapons capabilities had failed. Unlike the previous two nuclear tests by the North in 2006 and 2009, in which the effectiveness and appropriateness of the two competing sets of policies (i.e., a big sti

Unlike ordinary ambassadors who are primarily concerned with international politics, we are lucky to have many European ambassadors who are deeply interested in cultural exchanges. These ambassadors run excellent cultural centers at their embassies, allowing the Korean people to gain a deeper understanding of their home countries, while also enthusiastically learning about our country’s culture and society.Ambassador Jaroslav Olsa of the Czech Republic is one such outstanding example of a true c

There’s a new political boss in Venezuela. So far, he’s acting just like the old boss.Hugo Chavez was purportedly still in his death throes last week when his designated political heir, eager to snatch the reins of power before anyone could stop him, signaled that he was just as capable of playing the anti-American card as the dying president by summarily expelling two U.S. military attaches from the U.S. Embassy in Caracas.The stated reason ― that they were conspiring against the Venezuelan gov