Jay, our hero, Uncle Al, is not worried that the USA will do a Hong Kong - he's just wanting to deflate the irrational exuberance carefully, without pandemonium, and get everyone back to work and "Asian" Values. So far he has done a brilliant job, in the face of WAT, steel and other trade barriers, and whatnot. He deserves an award from humanity.
<Hong Kong, July 16 (Bloomberg) -- Hong Kong's unemployment rate rose to a record 7.7 percent last month, among the highest in Asia, as companies from banks to restaurants shed workers to cut costs and ride out a second year of little economic growth.
The sixth straight increase in unemployment, from 7.4 percent in May, left 264,000 of the city's 3.5 million-strong labor force out of work, the Census and Statistics Department said. Economists expected the jobless rate to rise to 7.6 percent.
The jobless rate may climb further because new jobs aren't being created to absorb the growing ranks of unemployed and new entrants to the workforce. In Asia, only the Philippines, at 13.9 percent, has a higher official unemployment rate.
``A large number of students will be joining the workforce in the coming months and unemployment will surely go up further,'' said Joe Lo, an economist at Citibank in Hong Kong.
Hong Kong's government forecasts the economy will expand just 1 percent this year, after growing 0.1 percent last year. That's less than neighboring China, whose government expects growth of at least 7 percent this year, and South Korea, where the jobless rate fell to 3 percent in June....>
Note that China's growth rate matches Hong Kong's unemployment rate. There is a symmetry there which provides an answer. So do the "Made in China" labels on nearly everything we buy.
Why would one hire grossly overpaid people in Hong Kong when there are hordes of people next door who would love to do the job for a much cheaper price?
Taiwan and Hong Kong, not to mention Korea and Japan, are building the boom in China. That is not such good news for the locals who see production moving base to China.
But that's good for QUALCOMM and others who make more money when other costs are lowered. The QUALCOMM ASIC is the good bit of a phone. The rest can be made really cheaply in China.
South Korea is so busy making CDMA phones, it's not surprising that their unemployment rate is dropping, and profits rising, after the silly idea of 1998 that Korea had fallen off the map and that QUALCOMM's game was over as a result. The same situation worldwide applies - people go right on buying CDMA through thick and thin because communication is not a luxury. It's a primary part of being alive; next after food, and before sex, which only takes place after communication - "Moshi moshi! Where are you? I'm ready to reproduce. Okay, meet you at Shinjuku at 7 pm".
On reflection, CDMA comes before food too. There's no food without communication. Gotta earn a living to buy food. Have to communicate to get a job. CDMA pretty much defines existence. No wonder you like Verizon.
Mqurice |
