The Woongjin Group crisis is roiling financial markets. The second-tier chaebol, which ranked 31st among Korea’s big business groups, sent a shockwave through the business community last week by filing for court protection for two key bankrupt companies ― Woongjin Holdings and Kukdong Engineering & Construction.The group’s aggregate debt was estimated at some 10 trillion won (about $9 billion), including 4.3 trillion won in borrowings from financial companies. A substantial part of it would beco

As election season enters full swing, a familiar scene is being reenacted ― “polifessors” swarming the campaign offices of presidential candidates. Polifessor is a compound of politics and professor. The term was coined here to refer to professors who are keen to sell their knowledge to their political patrons to get parliamentary seats or government posts. According to reports, the campaign offices of the three presidential runners ― Park Geun-hye of the ruling Saenuri Party, Moon Jae-in of the

Each year at this time, leaders gather at United Nations Headquarters in New York to assess the state of the world. This year, I used the occasion to sound the alarm about our direction as a human family.We are living through a period of profound turmoil, transition and transformation. Insecurity, inequality and intolerance are spreading. Governments are wasting vast and precious funds on deadly weapons while reducing investments in people. Too many people in power seem willfully blind to the th

A silent film that has lost none of its haunting significance in today’s climate of global economic anxiety and uncertainty, Charlie Chaplin’s classic “Modern Times” captures the nightmare vision par excellence of the middle class ― social demotion. Released in 1936, the film portrays the hapless character Charlie ― or, the Tramp, Chaplin’s alter ego ― comically and, at times, heroically, struggling to carve out an existence during the Great Depression in America. “Modern Times” came out at a ti

Maybe Charlie Rangel is right in saying that America should bring back the draft, although we get to the same conclusion for different reasons.Rangel believes that reinstatement of the draft is most equitable toward all. He thinks it’s unfair that privileged kids like mine don’t equally share the burden of military service. Actually, I’m starting to think that making them serve is the best way to keep them safe. It sounds counterintuitive, but think about it.Order in Afghanistan is crumbling. So

Tokyo’s mercurial governor, Shintaro Ishihara, gives new meaning to playing the sympathy card. In his dogged pursuit of staging the Olympics, and in his despair at being passed over for the 2016 games, Ishihara got desperate: He tapped into the outpouring of grief after last year’s record earthquake. His pitch for 2020, dubbed the “Olympics for Japan’s Revival,” became an appeal for pity. That gambit may be in vain given Ishihara’s role in bringing Japan and China to the brink of war. The Olympi

The news that a Harvard professor has obtained evidence that Jesus Christ may have had a wife could be a problem for married guys everywhere. Really, how do we measure up?Being the son of God, he’d be perfect. He’d make Ned Flanders look like a slob. The grass would always be cut, the dirty socks always picked up, the toilet seat always down. He would listen. He would not chafe at talks about relationships.(Note: I am fully aware that there were no lawns, socks or toilet seats 2,000 years ago. W

Those who lost the most Monday night in Seattle weren’t the Green Bay Packers. That was bad enough. The ones who lost the most were the fans who love the game and have made it the premier sport that it is.They lost thanks to the ineptitude of replacement referees who don’t understand the rules of the game and can’t see an interception when it’s right in front of their noses. More important, they lost to NFL owners who spout platitudes about the integrity of the game and then trade integrity for

As major countries of the world competitively ease monetary policies to boost their sagging economies, policymakers in Seoul are required to prepare steps to address their adverse effects on the Korean economy.On Sept. 6, the European Central Bank announced a plan to purchase an unlimited amount of eurozone government bonds to lower eurozone countries’ borrowing costs and bring the region’s dragged-out debt crisis under control. The ECB’s debt purchase scheme is tantamount to financing strugglin

China has recently reasserted a jurisdictional claim to Ieodo, challenging Korea’s control of the submerged rock in waters southwest of Jeju Island. The Seoul government needs to respond sternly to any Chinese attempt to invalidate Korea’s jurisdiction over the underwater outcropping.According to Chinese media reports, China’s State Oceanic Administration has disclosed a plan to strengthen surveillance of uninhibited islands and islets under Beijing’s jurisdiction using unmanned aerial vehicles.

BOSTON ― The anti-Japan protests that continue to roil China are just another indication of the rise of a potent Chinese nationalism. After a century slowly fomenting among Chinese intellectuals, national sentiment has captured and redefined the consciousness of the Chinese people during the last two decades of China’s economic boom. This mass national consciousness launched the Chinese colossus into global competition to achieve an international status commensurate with the country’s vast capac

The battle over the psychologically important threshold of 2,000 points considerably intensified as the benchmark Shanghai Composite Index dipped to a three-and-half-year low of 2,005 points on Monday morning. A mild rebound in the afternoon might have temporarily saved domestic investors from panic selling, but it still looks more than likely that the Chinese stock market is yet to find a bottom given the economic weakness both at home and abroad. Chinese policymakers should listen attentively

NEW HAVEN ― Recent indications of a weakening global economy have led many people to wonder how pervasive poor economic performance will be in the coming years. Are we facing a long global slump, or possibly even a depression?A fundamental problem in forecasting nowadays is that the ultimate causes of the slowdown are really psychological and sociological, and relate to fluctuating confidence and changing “animal spirits,” about which George Akerlof and I have written. We argue that such shifts

Records coming to light as a result of litigation against Irving-based Boy Scouts of America demonstrate yet again the fundamental lesson about handling child molestation allegations: The interests of institutions can’t override the obligation to protect the most vulnerable.Time and again, it’s been shown that when adults ignored or covered up or denied or simply failed to follow through, abusers were enabled, children got hurt and justice wasn’t served.The Catholic Church, Penn State University

Scenes of angry mobs in the Middle East and China fill the newspapers, internet and television these days. The raw emotion and irrationality that is driven by nationalism and religious fervor oozes out of the pictures. Ochlocracy, or rule by mob, is a dangerous and scary phenomenon. And yet that is exactly what calls for the resumption of the death penalty, or the institution of forced physical castration, in South Korea. Detailed descriptions of the horrors of crime merely add fuel to the fire

Director Ridley Scott found a new muse for his next thriller: Japan’s earthquake-devastated northeast. “Japan in a Day” opens the Tokyo International Film Festival next month, and many anticipate that the documentary charting Japan’s recovery from natural disaster will lift spirits and revive a sense of purpose among the nation’s 127 million people. Hollywood disaster flicks have nothing on March 11, 2011. Tsunami waves as high as 133 feet left more than 19,000 dead or missing, wiped out whole t

President Lee Myung-bak made the right decision when he accepted Friday the National Assembly’s demand that he appoint an independent counsel to look into his aborted retirement home construction plan.Earlier this month, the Assembly approved a bill to have an independent counsel investigate the allegations that Lee violated the law on real-name financial transactions by purchasing land for the residence in Naegok-dong, southern Seoul, in his son’s name.Lee’s son is also suspected of having comm

South Korea and the United States are reportedly close to a missile deal that would allow Seoul to extend its ballistic missile range from the current 300 km to 800 km, while leaving its payload limit intact at the current 500 kg.If the missile range is lengthened as reported, South Korea would be able to hit any position in North Korea from bases located north of Daejeon, a city at the center of the nation.This would be a big enhancement in Seoul’s striking capability. Yet it still falls short

AHMEDABAD, INDIA ― No country dominates any industry as much as the United States dominates higher education. According to Shanghai Jiao-Tong University’s Academic Ranking of World Universities, for example, 17 of the world’s 20 best universities are American, with Harvard topping the list by a substantial margin.The traditional explanation for this phenomenon ― America’s wealth, large population, generous research funding, widespread private philanthropy, and ability to attract scholars from ar

South Korea is the place to be this election season. The fortune tellers are at it again. Defeat for Park, defeat for Moon, win for Ahn. Maybe. This year’s presidential election is a wide open contest. Whether this was foresight or plain good timing by Ahn we’ll never know. But the Ahn factor has galvanized interest right across South Korean society. Whether his humbleness and deference to the people is genuine or not, that’s another issue.The announcement on Wednesday (Sept. 19) seemed to be ta