Freeing up credit flow the major challenge
[2009-03-17 07:48]Since the outbreak of the financial crisis in 2008, a major challenge confronting monetary officials of many economies has been one of unblocking credit channels.
Miss intrusive types in lonely times
[2009-03-10 07:46]In Hong Kong, if a casual acquaintance was bold enough to ask me how much money I was making, I would most certainly have thought that he or she had crossed to the other side of the thin red line of sanity. But such inquisitiveness is quite common on the mainland.
HK budget aims to create more jobs
[2009-03-03 07:49]In Hong Kong, few government announcements are taken as seriously as the annual budget speech of the Financial Secretary. It is an occasion when the government reaffirms its credibility by offering an unadulterated account of the state of the Hong Kong economy and setting the direction of economic policy for the next fiscal year.
Full brunt of crisis yet to be felt
[2009-02-24 06:53]The sharp fall of the Chinese stock market last week was a shock only to the overly optimistic investors who believed that the economic stimulus efforts by governments of both developed and emerging economies were the magic pill for recessionary woes.
Capital dearth prompts new strategies
[2009-02-17 07:51]There was a time not too long ago when capital was for the taking from a boiling stock market and credit was easily available at negative real interest rates. Banks and corporations in almost every sector were raking in huge profits and expanding at a breakneck pace with little regard for earnings quality.
No logic in capping pay for executives
[2009-02-10 07:49]The outbreak of the US sub-prime mortgage credit crisis, that has dragged the world into the worst economic recession since the Great Depression in the 1930s, has brought into sharp focus the controversy surrounding executive pay, especially in the financial sector.
HK govt facilitator of economy
[2009-01-20 07:46]Being named the world's freest economy for the 15th year by US think-tank The Heritage Foundation was nice. But that really didn't come as too much of a surprise to those of us who have been for many years the serious students, staunch supporters and, on occasions, merciless critics of Hong Kong's economic system.
Information is power for investors too
[2009-01-06 07:40]While putting stock market recovery at the top of their New Year's wish lists, many Chinese investors may have wondered what had goaded them into this bear trap in the first place.
HK gets Xmas gift in currency
[2008-12-30 07:39]It seems the central government has given Hong Kong a big present on Christmas eve when it announced, in one sentence, that it will allow the use of renminbi for the settlement of trade with Hong Kong, Macao and the ASEAN countries.
Where have all the Christmas lights gone?
[2008-12-23 07:44]In a town as intensely commercialized as Hong Kong, signs of a sick economy show up in the streets like dark rings around the eyes of a man coming down with a terrible cold.
This is no way to win public sympathy
[2008-12-09 07:45]Some years ago in Hong Kong, I foolishly got involved in a heated argument with a taxi driver who complained incessantly about the traffic. All I did was to tell him to shut up. That set him off on a long tirade on life in general, and rude passengers in particular. As I was getting off his taxi, he turned around and said, in rough Cantonese, "you should never pick a fight with a taxi driver. We're the tough guys."
