Asia

Along with commercial banks, capital markets are an integral part of the financial systems in most capitalist economies, and their relative importance is constantly increasing. Countries around the world are…

Central banks have two responsibilities: (1) stabilize the value of the currency and (2) maintain public confidence in deposit money by limiting systemic risk. The first responsibility is primary, ongoing,…

In the unfolding process of the Korean financial crisis in 1997, an inefficient corporate bankruptcy system played a damaging role in the Korean economy. Before the crisis, in 1996 and…

Although Korea has seen its economic growth rates come down from the stratospheric heights of previous decades, it remains, by any advanced-country yardstick, a successful economic performer. Korea’s real GDP…

In 2010, a group of Asian countries made major strides toward economic integration with the launch of the Chang Mai Initiative Multilateralization. This currency swap arrangement has had a major…

With the recent season finale of The Walking Dead and the broadcast of his visit to South Korea with talk show host Conan O'Brien this past weekend, we look back at our…

This week our guest is noted scholar and North Korea watcher Dr. Stephan Haggard. Dr. Haggard is a Professor of Korea-Pacific Studies and director of the Korea-Pacific Program at the…

At KEI, we mainly focus on the relationship between the United States and South Korea, and their approaches toward North Korea. This week, we're taking a different look at the…

August 24 of this year marked the six-month anniversary of the beginning of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.  In February, Moscow massed a hundred thousand troops along its border with Ukraine, all the while sanctimoniously proclaiming that it had no intention to invade. Expectations in Moscow were that Russia would quickly overthrow the government led by…

Following his inauguration in May 2022, President Yoon Suk Yeol announced that his administration would devise South Korea’s own Indo-Pacific strategy, which would consequently take the place of his predecessor’s New Southern Policy. The exact details of the strategy are yet to be announced, but South Korea’s past and ongoing foreign engagements provide an initial…

The steep decline in Korea’s fertility rate has created concern. In 2020, the number of deaths exceeded the number of births for the first time, according to census data from the Ministry of Interior and Safety. The Ministry stated that “amid the rapidly declining birthrate, the government needs to undertake fundamental changes to its relevant…

On August 9th, President Biden signed the Creating Helpful Incentives to Produce Semiconductors (CHIPS) and Science Act to boost U.S. investment in the semiconductor industry and incentivize domestic manufacturers. Some of its major provisions incentivize investment in the United States by major foreign chip manufacturers, namely those from Taiwan and South Korea. Framed as a…