Economic recovery at the expense of your neighbors? The wave of competitive currency devaluation further intensified in the month of January while pessimism grew that the year 2013 would be remembered as the year of a global exchange rates war. In many countries, quantitative easing and the ensuing currency depreciations are touted as the final prescription to boost exports and re-energize sagging domestic economies. Forget about the detrimental fallout for other countries. A blame game has alre

As people around the world prepare to ring in the Year of the Snake, here’s a simple way to honor these mysterious, misunderstood animals: Keep them out of your wardrobe. Snakes and other reptiles should not have to suffer and die just for our cold-blooded vanity.According to a recent International Trade Center report, the global trade in python skins ― which is poorly regulated and often illegal ― is threatening these animals’ survival. Half a million python skins are exported each year from So

PARK CITY, Utah ― The last documentary film that used dry charts and statistics to make an abstract argument about a global issue and nonetheless became a pop-culture hit was Al Gore’s “An Inconvenient Truth.” But the hit of this year’s Sundance Film Festival was a low-key affair called “Inequality for All,” in which Robert Reich, a labor secretary in the Clinton administration, explains how rising income inequality and the demise of the middle class is causing so many Americans to suffer.With P

Although people realize the necessity of parliamentary confirmations for cabinet nominees, they frown upon the process. The reason is obvious. Instead of examining a person’s abilities and qualifications, the hearing committee members tend to viciously bring forth all sorts of allegations and suspicions. During the process, they brutally expose all of the past mistakes and misdeeds of the nominee, thereby turning the supposedly solemn hearing into a scandal-rousing session. Everybody has a skele

The Constitutional Court, together with the Supreme Court, constitutes one of the three branches of government that are required to maintain checks and balances among themselves. But the Constitutional Court has been degraded by a series of ill-advised actions by its incumbent and former justices.One case in point involves Ahn Chang-ho, a Constitutional Court justice, who recently allowed his background to be checked for potential selection as a prosecutor-general nominee. He has turned himself

One-and-a-half months have passed since the presidential election, but the main opposition Democratic United Party is still trying to work out why it failed to win.The opposition party sponsored 12 rounds of debate on the question from Jan. 23-30. On the morning of Jan. 30, for instance, a group of 10 first- and second-term lawmakers affiliated with the party held a forum to evaluate the Dec. 19 election and the prospects for future presidential elections. In the afternoon, female lawmakers deal

WASHINGTON ― John Kerry’s first task as incoming secretary of state should be to develop a coherent policy for Syria, where U.S. sanctions are proving counterproductive, the fighting around Damascus is deadlocked, the economy is in ruins and the country is headed toward a sectarian breakup. This grim prognosis for Syria is based on the latest reports provided to the State Department by opposition forces working with the Free Syrian Army. The military situation in Damascus is described as a stale

If you catch yourself feeling a little more optimistic about Europe’s economic prospects now that the cost of government borrowing has eased, take a look at Spain. With an unemployment rate of 26 percent ― about one in three of all jobless people across the euro area ― Spain is entering its fifth year of recession and the pace of contraction is actually accelerating. The country’s austerity-first approach to budget policy is a main reason. Nobody doubts that Spain needs further economic reform,

Immigration reform is having a “Kumbaya” moment, with support from the White House, a bipartisan contingent in Congress, business and labor. The Republicans are petrified after their dismal showing among the fastest-growing slices of the electorate, Hispanics and Asians; President Barack Obama wants to reward the loyalty of those voters. Business and labor, as well as many politicians, want to fix a totally dysfunctional system. There are more than 11 million undocumented immigrants, 5 percent o

The gun industry isn’t the first to try to push deadly products into the hands of children.That distinction belongs to the tobacco industry, whose efforts have continued despite federal regulation, medical evidence and decades of efforts to raise social awareness about the horrors of addiction.When government cracked down on gimmicks like “Joe Camel,” loopholes were found, and then enlarged until you could drive a truck full of cigarettes right through them. Never underestimate the motivation of

NEW YORK ― In 1981, U.S. President Ronald Reagan came to office famously declaring that, “Government is not the solution to our problem. Government is the problem.” Thirty-two years and four presidents later, Barack Obama’s recent inaugural address, with its ringing endorsement of a larger role for government in addressing America’s ― and the world’s ― most urgent challenges, looks like it may bring down the curtain on that era.Reagan’s statement in 1981 was extraordinary. It signaled that Ameri

STANFORD ― A successful society needs effective, affordable government to perform its necessary functions well, and that includes sufficient revenue to fund those functions. But a government that grows too large, centralized, bureaucratic, and expensive substantially impairs the private economy by eroding individual initiative and responsibility; crowding out private investment, consumption, and charity; and damaging incentives with high tax rates. It also risks crowding out necessary government

WASHINGTON ― Chuck Hagel means it when he describes himself as an “Eisenhower Republican.” He kept a bust of President Dwight Eisenhower in his Senate office for a dozen years, and has a portrait of Ike on the wall of his current office at Georgetown University. But the most compelling evidence of Hagel’s fascination is that he purchased three-dozen copies of an Eisenhower biography and gave copies to President Obama, Vice President Biden and then-Defense Secretary Bob Gates, according to the bo

TEL AVIV ― Few foresaw the surprising setback suffered by Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, his Likud party, and the right in general in Israel’s recent general election. It is an outcome that will have important ramifications for Israel’s domestic politics and foreign policy alike, particularly its Middle Eastern diplomacy.Although the final vote tally awaits (soldiers’ votes have not yet been fully counted), the basic result is known. Given the current stalemate between the right and left, a

Once again during his presidential term, Lee Myung-bak has used the presidential pardon power, and once again during his presidential term the pardon power has been misused. Although the Blue House asserts such uses have been in strict accordance with law or in the pursuit of the national interest, the truth is that the use of this power to pardon family members, close confidants, or high-ranking chaebol members disregards both the spirit of the power and the original intent behind the power. Ev

Two sets of figures published this week concerning Taiwan’s employment indeed show some of the country’s problems. The lesson, though, is less about the labor market itself and more about its educational, social and economic development.The government’s monthly report on employment showed that the December jobless rate dropped to 4.18 percent, improving by 0.09 percentage points compared to November. Despite the improvement, unemployment among the young and educated is on the rise.Meanwhile, a p

Defying public outcry, President Lee Myung-bak is expected to announce a special pardon soon, possibly Tuesday. The Ministry of Justice has already submitted a presidential clemency proposal to Lee.The planned pardon has triggered public outcry as it reportedly includes some of Lee’s friends and aides who have been convicted of corruption. For this reason, President-elect Park Geun-hye’s transition team has voiced opposition to the amnesty plan. Yoon Chang-jung, spokesman of the team, said on Sa

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un appears to have decided to conduct another nuclear test. The North’s state media reported on Sunday that Kim had expressed his firm intention to take “substantial and high-profile state measures” in response to the Jan. 23 U.N. Security Council sanctions.The dispatch from the North’s Korean Central News Agency did not elaborate on the “measures,” but they were believed to be referring to an atomic bomb test in light of Pyongyang’s escalating threats to detonate a

VIENNA ― As is customary at the start of a new year, imposing statistics and trend forecasts are being trumpeted worldwide. For example, in 2016, China is expected to replace the United States as the world’s largest economy. And, by 2040, India’s population will have reached 1.6 billion, surpassing China’s, which will have stagnated a decade earlier. Perhaps the most startling projection is that the U.S. will become an energy exporter by 2020, and will become energy self-sufficient 15 years late

LONDON ― Unlike some in Britain’s Conservative Party, Prime Minister David Cameron has not previously given the impression of being obsessed with Europe. He demonstrated no enthusiasm for the European Union, but he appeared clearly less exercised by its supposed iniquities than many Tories are.This view of Cameron’s position is now difficult to sustain. His long-gestating speech on Europe, although containing elements that many might share, also sows the seeds for a prolonged and acrimonious deb