To: Brad Bolen who wrote (2117 ) 8/16/1998 3:41:00 PM From: WhySoSoon Respond to
I too share your concerns. Even though I left HK for over twenty years, I still have a lot of feelings about it. HK starts to lose its competitive edge since the regional countries devalued their currencies one after another. In today's integrated global economy, consumers always look for the best value. If HK cannot provide the best value, they will go elsewhere. The tourism is a prime example and this in turn affects a lot of other industries. The high value property policy crashes down to earth and it triggers the devaluation of the HK market. For the last few years, everybody in HK knows how to make a living. All you have to do is go to the market and flips a couple stocks a day then you can have a nice meal. Others will do speculation on the real estate for their living. Since these are all easy money, many people quitted their jobs to become professional speculators. Now, the bubble bursts and it is a reality check. I think HK should take a tough medicine and recoup. Let the FREE market take it where ever it is. The problem is that the HK gov't is kind of influenced by a number of external forces. Other than the mainland gov't, the wealthy businessmen also exert a lot of pressure on the HK gov't to protect their wealth (the property price). But you know when you try to intervene any market, the end result is usually opposite. Because the more you try to intervene, the more the people think that it is heading from bad to worse. This happens to other countries such as Malaysia.
