

The Death of Hong Kong (1995) - meric
http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/1995/06/26/203948/index.htm

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mathattack
Whoops! Kind of got that one wrong.

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meric
What do you mean? I thought it was spot on.

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mathattack
HK is prospering

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meric
Hong Kong's GDP might be rising, but most of its people's income has been
steadily decreasing since 1997.

In 1997 a university graduate earns $10000-$20000 per month. In 2011, a
university graduate still earns only $10000-$20000 per month. After inflation
it is a net decrease.

Why? Hong Kong has monopolies with no anti-monopoly laws. Buses, Trains,
Electricity, Supermarkets - All monopolies or duopolies. (There are several
bus companies all with their own local monopoly regions).

The Chief Executive of Hong Kong is, for all practical purposes, appointed by
the Chinese government due to its influence in Hong Kong politics. The Chief
Executive writes polices with China's interest over Hong Kong interest. In any
other country you would call that treason, but since Hong Kong is part of
China...

The largest political party in Hong Kong is almost directly funded by the
Chinese Government and it votes in favour of every bill the government
proposes.

The minimum wage law of $28 HKD ~= $7 USD per hour was instituted only last
year.

This might seem like Hong Kong was fully in support of a vibrant capital
market but consider this: during the early 2000's recessions (remember SARS),
Hong Kong refused to budge their fixed exchange rate with the US so that China
can use Hong Kong's fixed currency as a buffer. China's currency wasn't
internationally traded then, and so to get its currency fixed with the US, the
only way was using the Hong Kong dollar as an intermediary, at Hong Kong's
people's expense.

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mathattack
Interesting. Perhaps I've got a little too much bias from just seeing Finance
over there surviving better than Finance over here.

