« January 2007 | Main | March 2007 »
February 27, 2007
China Stock Market Drops 9%
Read 'em and weep. Note HSBC's Garry Evans -- a most unfortunate ex post facto comment: "I think the market had gotten a little too expensive." Another article from a Chinese perspective.
UPDATE: With remarks from Cheng Si-wei (成思危) like this, a drop can't be considered that surprising, although its one day magnitude goes beyond expectation. [More articles in Chinese here and here.]
"泡沫正在形成。投资者应关注风险，”成思危在接受英国《金融时报》采访时表示。“但在牛市行情中，人们的投资相对不理性。每个投资者都认为自己能赢，但许多投资者最终都是输家。不过，这就是他们的风险，也是他们的选择。"
Read the comments of Chinese investors here. [In Chinese.} When Chinese markets open in but 4 short hours (8.15 pm New York time), we will see if they continue to drop or, perhaps, return some equilibrium. Far from evidencing panic, you will note many comments made today, such as this one, hinted at by Cheng:
在这里可以给各位一个肯定的回答:没有,牛市没有结束!今天的暴跌可以说是大盘长期利空积累的一个爆发,这样的暴跌也是大盘在为节前出逃的资金创造一个重新进场的机会!Posted by Richard at 2:14 PM | Comments (1)
February 23, 2007
Another Chinese Super(business)man?
James Fallows reports on yet another rags-to-riches megalomaniac. Mr. Fallows's report, perhaps unknowingly, has caught in a 5 minute video all the usual characteristics of this Chinese type: xenophilia (but at a distance), imitation of "best practices," massive display of wealth, rigid enforcement of conformity among his employees, the creation of a personal ideology and, of course, assistants crowding round hoping to collect every tit-bit of his wisdom.
Posted by Richard at 6:09 PM | Comments (0)February 21, 2007
Uh, oh. A New Enemy.
No, I haven't read the book, and I intend to avoid doing so. The author's precis of his apocalyptic, decades-long, multi-fronted conflict theory with perceived enemy China is itself sufficiently off-putting.
We can chalk it up as just another iteration of the Golden Horde thesis, a prevalent idea in American life as early as the 1850s, when it became an underpinning of the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 -- making Chinese immigration unlawful in the U.S. until, if you can believe it, 1965.
China may be many things to the U.S., but a devil-enemy responsible for all our ills she is not. That false conception is as far-flung from reality as the imaginative indications of China's complicity in nuclear terrorism in the American television series, Jericho. And it grinds my gears to see fear-mongering spread to a public that doesn't know much better than what our "experts" attempt to teach it.
Posted by Richard at 1:03 PM | Comments (0)February 19, 2007
More on the Value of the RMB
Well, I guess it's settled. Everyone's decided the Chinese will revalue the RMB. So there you have it.
Posted by Richard at 12:26 PM | Comments (0)February 13, 2007
U.S. Treasury's New Point Guard for Economic Talks with China
Mr. Paulson has chosen Alan Holmer, a negotiator without China knowledge or experience, to "run the US-China strategic economic dialogue." After many years of dealing with Americans who deal with China, I fail to comprehend how the American businessman, other than the mere buyer of a commodity product, continues to assume that success can be had in any foreign nation without substantial knowledge of it.
One hopes that Mr. Holmer will prove himself to be incredibly persuasive, resourceful and manipulative. But he is a curious choice when there are more than a handful of highly-trained negotiators with China-specific expertise. He could be ripe pickings for an excuse when Mr. Paulson's initiatives to move China fail to budge it.
Posted by Richard at 1:12 PM | Comments (2)February 7, 2007
The Chinese on the Business Acumen of the Jews
The happy belief that Jews are, to a man, accomplished money-makers -- hard-working and smart as well! -- is widespread among Chinese. Ask just about any Chinese -- worldwide -- what he thinks about Jews and the response will be precisely that. Go ahead - just ask your colleague.
Deprived of contact with Jews, perhaps having only a vestigial recollection of the Persian Jews, like the Sassoons and the Kadoories, who emigrated to Shanghai in the 19th century to build business empires, Chinese consider it positive, acceptable and accurate to lump all Jews together into an easily managed concept. (Blacks are similarly roped and corralled, but with harshly negative overtones.)
Jewish people might find any stereotype offensive, but this one bestows substantial respect upon Jews, especially when one's Chinese business counterpart discovers that he is Jewish. My suggestion to Jewish businessmen is simply to grin and bear it. Repeat after me: "Yes, damn it, you bet I'm smart. But we're friends and we can make money together!"
(Japanese, to their discredit, have a somewhat similar view of Jews, but the thrust is unkind, with vague reverberations of world conspiracy that is absent from the Chinese. Lots of Japanese publications on that score...)
By the way, ask any Shanghai resident if what other Chinese say about them is true -- that they are without exception the craftiest businessmen, exceeding even Wenzhou people, in the nation. Most Shanghai born and bred folk cringe and deny. But when asked whether Jews are smart businessmen, they readily agree. [Rapidly nodding heads with ejaculations of "oh, absolutely!"]
Here's a fun little read. Books such as these have been on mainland Chinese shelves since the late 90s, but, If I remember correctly, publishers in Taiwan sold similar books in the late 70s and 80s. The titles escape me. Might a reader remember?
Posted by Richard at 12:18 PM | Comments (1)February 6, 2007
Pan Shi-yi Invokes Deng Xiao-ping in Criticism of Land Ownership Controls
As its lead story, Nanfang Daily publishes a lengthy, but interesting interview originally carried in 南方都市报 with the real estate investor, Pan Shi-yi (潘石屹). Pan's blog graphically displays the percentage of property ownership....well, take a look. [In Chinese.]
Posted by Richard at 2:16 PM | Comments (0)February 2, 2007
U.S. Treasury China Personnel Change: Adams Leaves Office
Tim Adams has left Treasury. Is Mr. Paulson about to announce a shift in Treasury's China policy?
Posted by Richard at 1:46 PM | Comments (0)February 1, 2007
Once More, Paulson Again Restates American Position on Renminbi Revaluation, For A Further Time, Anew...
Will Mr. Paulson become the Eveready Bunny of the forex world?
[Editor's note: The Eveready Bunny, for those readers who've not seen him on TV, is the brand mascot for a long-lived battery that "keeps going and going..."]
Posted by Richard at 1:06 PM | Comments (0)
