2 weeks Ago
Every week is a flurry of events on the global stage. The United States-Ukraine meeting in Washington was not just extraordinary; it was comparable to a tectonic shift — a pillar of European regional security has completely switched its stance. The U.
S., which Europeans have seen as a security guarantor for all of Europe since 1945, is no longer playing that role. What I'm thankful to Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy for is that he exposed U.
S. President Donald Trump for what he is, showing exactly where he stands in relation to Russia and Putin's ambitions toward Ukraine. The question now is: does NATO without the U.
S. equal Asia without the U.S.
as well? I feel that we won’t have to wait for too long to find out the answer. So, we must get ready. The first round of tariff shots took place just a day ago.
Some countries retaliated and even raised their stakes. Now, the ball is in Trump’s court again. It doesn’t really matter whether he continues to escalate or not — the pain of those tariffs is already being felt in plummeting stock prices.
Soon, we will see it reflected in rising prices of goods everywhere. Speaking of tariffs, our own table needs to be revisited. For example, if you try to import the latest Blackwell video card from abroad, you’ll pay nearly half the price in tariffs.
The same applies to any high-end computer motherboards. Why video cards and motherboards? Apparently, these are essential for building an AI computer system. We're actually placing bets on that for our future.
We don't produce any of these locally, and we're paying extra to import them. It means businesses, and individuals alike, are now being punished for their desire to venture into new fields. In other words, we are taxing our own progress! The tax system, in general, needs fine-tuning.
The inheritance tax is already being addressed, and I don’t see it as just a moral issue; it’s increasingly a matter of economic management. The last issue of The Economist dubbed it as "inheritocracy." One of the loopholes in the Korean tax code contributed to the rise of coffeehouses and bakeries in the quaint countryside, as these multi-story buildings are exempt from inheritance tax.
Many people chose this scheme as a way to transfer their wealth to their children. Our domestic affairs are yet another source of headaches for all of us. If the tariff war weren’t enough, we are poorly suited as a country, institutionally.
The ongoing political gridlock prevents the situation from being resolved. The fallout from the martial law fiasco has also shown that we must make our critical governance systems bulletproof. And I mean that literally.
We were extremely lucky that election data remained untouched and that key systems at the National Assembly had backup circuits to keep the lights on. But, if we look at the situation from a distance, the economy isn't as bad, even though our democratic institutions are struggling. That made me think of the top three examples of other countries that were in similar situations without effective leadership at the helm.
Belgium is a record-breaker, going almost two years without an effective government. Similar to Korea, its political polarization prevented the formation of a Cabinet. The caretaker government, a concept from public administration, had to manage daily operations.
Plus, delegated powers from the central government allowed regional administrations to keep the country afloat. The Netherlands is my second example. After the 2021 election, political disagreement prevented the parties from forming a new cabinet, but the country functioned for almost a year, albeit without making any significant or serious decisions due to limited powers.
Spain faced the problem of a power vacuum not once, but twice in its recent history. Compared to others, its strong central bureaucracy, along with its autonomous regions, supported the country’s governance. What can we learn from this? Korea’s highly centralized presidential system that places way too much power into the executive branch definitely needs a redesign.
Though, I must say, we must give the idea careful thought, because technically we are still at war and we certainly don’t want to jeopardize our combat readiness. I must also mention that Korea isn’t in Europe, and our neighbors are far from friendly, so our institutional redesign must align with our regional standing. Administratively speaking, our regions need more autonomy and economic rebalancing, as some were left out of major industrialization projects and are still lagging behind the rest of the country.
The move of the future presidential office to Sejong is already being discussed, which is certainly a good sign. We need more debates on how to move forward and get things done, and stop wasting time and energy on political fetishism in the streets of Seoul. The world is being rapidly reconfigured.
Geopolitical alliances are changing, including ours. We didn’t do badly until now, 2025. According to IMF data, Korea achieved a 29 percent growth, from $1.
5 trillion to $2 trillion in adjusted GDP, compared to 2015. But this number is dwarfed by China’s 74 percent from $11.2 to 19.
5 trillion in the same period. My worry isn’t only China and a slew of other countries. We are also falling behind the world’s average of 35 percent of adjusted GDP growth for a decade.
If we stay on the course, Korea might lose its relevance. We got to move and move fast. To remove this article -.
