As it is increasingly becoming clear that the Korean economy is headed for a prolonged period of slow growth due to the global economic slump, the nation should refocus on economic growth and make concerted efforts to keep the economy running. The nation’s economy is already under the influence of the sputtering global economy. In the World Economic Outlook released Tuesday, the International Monetary Fund cut its growth estimate for Korea this year to 2.7 percent. Its previous forecast, announc

Mitt Romney’s winning performance in last week’s presidential debate has reinforced his campaign’s belief that this election parallels the one in 1980: In troubled times, Republicans inevitably defeat an unpopular Democratic president. While Romney gets to hit the reset button after President Barack Obama’s desultory display, he’d better not count on the 1980 analogy. Ronald Reagan’s victory over Jimmy Carter wasn’t inevitable; it was earned, with some help from outsiders. The environment was fa

Last week a 61-year-old woman jumped from her fifth floor apartment to her death. Her act was, once again, the last desperate attempt by a crime victim in South Korea to obtain justice. Her sad tale started when she checked into a hospital last year and was raped by a 27-year-old man who worked at the hospital. After she reported the rape to the police the young man failed a lie detector test and the case proceeded to court. However, last month the court released the accused, reasoning that as t

Amid the usual hyperbolic conspiracy theories, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said something incisive in a televised address last week: that the West is waging economic “war” against Iran. He’s right, and the Iranian rial’s death spiral is the first clear sign that we’re on a path to victory. The 40 percent drop by the rial against the dollar since late September is a symptom of larger woes: oil exports are at 1 million barrels a day, down from 2.2 million last year; quarterly oil revenue

Koreans have many things to be proud of. South Korea rose from the ashes of civil war to become an economically advanced democracy. Its companies (e.g., Hyundai, Samsung) and celebrities (e.g., Psy) stride on the world’s stage. However, outside observers are less enamored with a widespread cultural trait, termed “han,” which describes a keen sense of sadness, victimhood and injustice. As described by Korean-American sociologist Jon Huer, han can “be inflicted on the Korean people by a foreign po

There are two major theories about why Mitt Romney is dropping in the polls. One is that Romney is a lousy candidate, unable to connect with people or make his case. The other is that Americans are finally beginning to see how radical the GOP has become and are repudiating it.Most Republicans hold to the first view, for obvious reasons. And their long knives are already out.Conservative columnist Peggy Noonan called the Romney campaign “incompetent” and “a rolling calamity.” Republican guru Will

NEW YORK ― Has there really been a sexual revolution? One of the themes that I explore in my new book, “Vagina: A New Biography,” is that the West’s supposedly sexually liberated societies, in which sexual images and content are available everywhere, have not really been all that liberating for women. Many of the reactions to my book tend to confirm that belief.Many responses were positive: the book is Publishers Weekly’s top science book of the fall. But the tone of some of the criticism ― from

OSAKA ― Japan is now confronting challenges at home and abroad that are as serious as any it has had to face since World War II’s end. Yet the Japanese public is displaying remarkable apathy. The country’s two major political parties, the governing Democratic Party of Japan and the Liberal Democratic Party recently chose their leaders, yet ordinary Japanese responded with a collective shrug. But Japan’s political system is unlikely to remain a matter of popular indifference for much longer.The D

WASHINGTON ― While the overlooked war in Afghanistan grinds on, a group of officials in Washington, Kabul and Islamabad are exploring a bare-bones strategy that would narrow each side’s demands to a set of minimum conditions for escaping the current diplomatic dead end. The aim is to create a pathway for the withdrawal of U.S. and NATO troops from a war that almost nobody sees as “winnable” by military force alone. The goal is a framework for political transition where each side’s demands are bo

PARIS ― Mitt Romney’s biggest problem in this race isn’t that he’s wealthy ― it’s that he lacks the sort of passion that can only be forged by trial and tribulation. It’s one thing to articulate the principles of free-market capitalism and limited government as the solution to the country’s current woes, but they have little effect when they can’t be strapped to an emotional rocket and delivered in surgical strikes straight through voters’ hearts.Politics will always be about connecting with peo

STANFORD ― As America’s elections approach, with President Barack Obama slightly in front of his Republican challenger, former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, pollsters still rate the races for control of the presidency and the United States Senate too close to call, with the House of Representatives likely to remain in Republican hands. The differences between the candidates are considerable, and highly consequential for American economic policy and the global economy, although enactment of

The U.S. Bill of Rights declares that no one may be deprived of life, liberty or property “without due process of law.” The core meaning of this provision is that the government cannot hurt you ― by taking away your freedom or what you own ― without giving you an opportunity to have your say. This right helps to define liberty under law. Public officials are fallible, and before they take action against you, they should hear you out to make sure that they have the facts straight. Human beings sh

NEWPORT BEACH ― It sounded like a really clever idea: Use a very public and sizeable threat to get bickering politicians to collaborate and compromise. Well, it has not worked so far, and the already-sizeable stakes just got bigger.No, I am not talking here about Europe’s debt crisis, decisive resolution of which still requires greater cooperation and shared responsibility, both within individual eurozone member states and between creditor and debtor countries. I am referring to the complex fisc

Costa Rican women are appealing to the Inter-American Court of Human Rights to overturn a national law banning in-vitro fertilization.The state’s national ombudsman, Ofelia Taitelbaum, started the process, saying “people will understand that this is about rights” that are appropriate for “our times.”In the worldwide debate over abortion and women’s rights, this might seem like an unusual law. After all, in-vitro fertilization actually creates life. But Costa Rica is heavily Catholic; more than 7

BERKELEY ― The first two components of the euro crisis ― a banking crisis that resulted from excessive leverage in both the public and private sectors, followed by a sharp fall in confidence in eurozone governments ― have been addressed successfully, or at least partly so. But that leaves the third, longest-term, and most dangerous factor underlying the crisis: the structural imbalance between the eurozone’s north and south.First, the good news: The fear that Europe’s banks could collapse, with

As the U.S. contemplates whether to attack Iran’s nuclear facilities, intelligence community leaders should be asking themselves a question: What if we’re wrong?That question wasn’t asked ― or at least wasn’t answered ― in the run-up to the 2003 Iraq war, with devastating consequences. Before giving up on containment or deterrence polices and undertaking a “preventive war” against a nation that has not attacked the United States, we should be as certain as possible of the evidence.Iran today pre

South Korean officials have recently realized that the United States is likely to try to forbid them from enriching uranium and expanding their country’s missile range, rather than leave these issues on the diplomatic back burner. Indeed, recent discreet talks, in which the U.S. has disregarded South Korean efforts to supplement the controversial U.S.-South Korea Nuclear Cooperation Agreement, which expires in March 2014, suggest that there are reasons to be deeply worried about the alliance’s f

Even a company with cutting-edge technology and a strong brand will founder if it makes a mistake in the selection and concentration of its business. The setback of Sharp Corp., dubbed a giant of liquid crystal display panels, is a warning for the Japanese manufacturing industry.Amid a financial crisis, Sharp has compiled a rehabilitation plan centering on cutting more than 10,000 jobs and selling its television factories abroad. Highly evaluating the plan, Sharp’s main financing banks have deci

Long before the recent brouhaha over “Taiwanese laborers” in Australia, Taiwan has been the export powerhouse of fraudsters to the mainland and Southeast Asia. On Sept. 18, the Philippines deported 279 Taiwanese arrested in the country’s biggest crackdown on online fraud. They were accused of impersonating police, prosecutors and bank officials to convince victims in China and Taiwan to transfer money into accounts provided by the syndicate, the Associated Press reported.In an analysis published

As we enter the fourth quarter of 2012, two influential commentators have questioned whether Germany should exit the eurozone. Earlier this month, George Soros argued that Germany must either lead or leave the eurozone. This week, Financial Times columnist Martin Wolf also considered the question and argued that Germany will have to pay a high price for her mercantilist policies. The fact that German Chancellor Merkel has come out openly to overrule the Bundesbank president on commitments to the