How can we change campaign finance laws?
What are the mechanisms for it?

With John McCain facing funding problems, Obama could make a deal and keep his former pledge to use public funds.

The
private study academy in eastern Seoul was unusually quiet yesterday
afternoon. Normally abuzz with activity, it is now without the American
teacher who used to draw elementary school students trying to hone
their English skills. The teacher left suddenly last month, said the
school’s owner, who asked that her school not be identified.
“The
teacher asked for a raise of 300,000 won [$320] from her previous
monthly pay of 2 million won, and she left after I told her our
financial situation does not allow that,” said the 45-year-old owner,
who only gave her family name, Kim. After posting a series of want ads
on various Internet notice boards, Kim realized it was hard to find a
replacement, a situation also faced by other private schools.
Known
as hagwon in Korea, the schools are a fixture for academically driven
students who use them to cram for mathematics and to learn English,
sometimes starting as young as four years old. Tougher visa
requirements now in effect requiring criminal background checks and
in-person screening for foreign teachers are driving up pay for
teachers, and causing some to leave Korea altogether.
“Everyone
says it will be harder to get English-speaking teachers because of the
new visa rules, so teachers are asking for more pay,” Kim said.
Wall
Street Institute, one of the largest English cram-school chains here,
is also having trouble hiring new teachers. Among five foreign teachers
scheduled to work at a new branch in Busan, two are still stuck at home
trying to get their documents in order.
“Two Canadian teachers
haven’t arrived because they do not have all the documents required for
visa approval,” said Kim Joon-hee, the institute’s hiring manager. “We
can’t even get temporary teachers because demand far outstrips the
supply these days.”
New Justice Ministry requirements for E-2
visas took effect on Dec. 15 last year in the aftermath of a scandal
involving an accused pedophile who was teaching in Gwangju and concerns
about forged academic credentials by other teachers. It has had the
effect of tightening the supply of English teachers.
Foreigners
hoping to teach here are now required to submit official documents
showing their criminal and medical history, and then to go through a
separate screening interview at a Korean consulate in their home
countries.
The new rule also applies to those who already have an
E-2 visa. They have until March 15 to extend their visas without
additional documents, but once their current visa expires, they must go
through the same screening process, meaning an expensive trip home for
some teachers. The change is particularly difficult for teachers from
Canada and China, since the two countries have not signed a so-called
apostille pact with Korea, in which documents issued in one country are
recognized by the other. The hassle and expense of the new rules are
causing some teachers to just give up on Korea.
The crunch means
some private schools have to cancel courses. A private English school
owner, who refused to name his school, said he closed two of four
afternoon English conversation classes after three of his five foreign
teachers quit.
“I promised them a raise, but they said extending
the visa is too time-consuming and taxing,” said the school owner, who
only gave his name as Park. “They said they would rather move to other
places like Japan.”
As the exodus cuts into supply, wage and
recruitment costs are rising. Kim Soo-ho, who runs a recruitment agency
for English teachers, said the firm has raised the fees it charges
schools to 1.2 million won per teacher, up from 800,000 won before the
visa changes.
“We used to recruit about 30 foreigners a month for
private English schools, but the number is down to just five since the
visa change took effect,” Park said.
Ultimately, the costs will
get passed along to parents, say hagwon owners, who may soon have to
raise tuition fees if wages keep going up.
“I found just one
teacher and that was after I increased the monthly wage by 500,000
won,” said a school owner in Suwon, Gyeonggi province. A representative
of the Korea Hagwon Association said wage increases are squeezing the
entire industry. “We can no longer bear the rising labor cost,” he
said.

By Kang Ki-hun JoongAng Ilbo [hawon@joongang.co.kr]

Thomas Coyner on Korea.

See his blog at http://www.tomcoyner.com/understanding_korea.htm 

I traded a practice account on Intrade.com, the prediction markets, and in one month of very light trading, I’m up 20%! I was long Edwards and Obama, shorted Romney, then went long Romney, went long Clinton after an overreaction to her defeat last night for a quick easy dead cat bounce, etc. I closed all political positions before the caucus except for my long Obama position, which paid off quite nicely. I’m trading more Dems that Repubs, just because I know them better, though I did well shorting Guiliani, for example. So far I took a loss in, ironically, a bet on the Fed funds rate. My only open position is shorting contract for US attacks on North Korea by June 08 which, of course, just isn’t gonna happen unless there’s some terrible mistake somewhere. That’s a risky bet in a way because I have only 5 point to gain, but 95 to lose. Still, I don’t see any black swans flying over the 38th parallel any time soon, if ever.

Back to the economy, with Huckabee’s win I sense an opening for Bloomberg to enter the fray. Therefore on Intrade I might go long Bloomberg for a few points.

Meanwhile, $100 oil has Koreans worrying about the impact to their economy, and they’re right to worry. Richard Berner of Morgan Stanley seems to think that the world economy may “recouple” (mainly I believe because China will face both higher commodity prices — the cost of their success — and because they’re tightening interest rates), so that we’d see slowing on both sides of the Pacific. Non-farm payrolls are a disaster — I’ve got to get my ass to Asia, pronto.

http://english.chosun.com/w21data/html/news/200801/200801020009.html

The author also seems to claim that Korea should be doing much better in English, that the current system doesn’t work (true) and that the Scandinavian countries are the proper model to emulate.

The author claims that native teachers aren’t used in the northern European countries, but that they learn English just fine. But that’s because there’s already a base of teachers there who speak practically perfect English. That’s clearly not the case in Korea.

The author also compares Koreans to learners in Hong Kong or Singapore. The problem there is that learning English from Chinese is far easier than learning from Korean or Japanese. While Chinese and Arabic may be hard to learn from English, the reverse isn’t as true. From my personal experience, the Japanese and Koreans seem to have the hardest time with English, and that’s surely not coincidence.

I think there are two reasons that Koreans try so hard but speak so poorly. One is that it’s a hard task, that English is so different from Korean, especially grammatically. The other is that most English learning is memorization, not active use. The good thing is that Koreans often have great English vocabularies. The  bad is that they really can’t use them very often.

Anyway, it’s good to get the ten billion a year figure (The number given was really ten trillion won, which is a little more than ten billion. And who knows about the grey and black markets…)  Clearly, a very encouraging figure.

By Nikki Tait in Brussels

Published: December 20 2007 02:00 | Last updated: December 20 2007 02:00

MasterCard was told yesterday it faces daily fines of up to $316,000 unless it slashes the cross-border fees it charges for credit and debit card payments.

The credit card company was told by the European Commission it was in breach of competition rules by charging excessively high interchange fees which inflated costs to both retailers and consumers. Interchange fees are paid between banks servicing vendors and the banks servicing the cardholder.

MasterCard said it would launch a legal challenge to the ruling which is expected to have wide ramifications. Brussels gave the company six months to withdraw its current fee structure or face heavy daily penalties if it failed to comply.

The Commission said that these would be calculated at 3.5 per cent of the company’s global daily turnover in the previous year. MasterCard reported full-year revenues of $3.3bn for 2006. The Commission accused MasterCard of charging excessively high fees on cross-border transactions four years ago but the dispute dates back to complaints first received in the 1990s.

MasterCard had said interchange fees were vital to facilitating transactions. In particular, it said its system balanced the costs and benefits between cardholders and retailers.

Neelie Kroes, the European Union competition commissioner, said the decision did not mean that all multilateral interchange fees were illegal.

The decision was welcomed by retailers. The British Retail Consortium described it as a “major victory” while the European Retail Round Table, comprising leading multinational retailers such as Carrefour and Ikea said it should “open the way for national competition authorities to take similar action”.

Up to 12 EU member states are believed to be looking at the legality of interchange fees although investigations are at differing stages. An Office of Fair Trading probe in the UK is the most public.

Ms Kroes said the decision would provide more legal certainty. She said the Commission did not intend to prohibit all interchange fees. “Each and every scheme” would be examined on its merits.

The Commission moved against MasterCard a year after Visa, its rival, struck a 2002 deal to exempt interchange fees for cross-border payments from competition rules in return for modifications, including a cut in fees.

Visa’s exemption expired on December 31 and any fresh deal will have to be in line with the MasterCard findings.

–Hmm, funny. Google video is having a hard time loading.