Watching television the other night, I came across a commercial of a hamburger restaurant (not McDonald's) which was reasonably well done with nice scenes and a refreshing looking cast. But the ad turned me off.
In a meeting at the London School of Economics last week, Hong Kong Chief Executive Donald Tsang told the audience that his government has no plan to cut public spending, which, he said, will "help reduce the impact of the current economic downturn and stimulate demand for goods and services."
The G20 conference was no Bretton Woods.
It's bright, clean and well-stocked with the daily necessities that any modest person would ever need. And the best part is that a spanking new example is going to open right across the street from where I work and live.
The Hong Kong government has established a blue-ribbon council, whose members include some of the best minds in business and academia, to address the economic problems created by the fallout of global credit crisis.
As government planners and economists in China have agreed that the key to maintaining economic stability in the stormy sea of the global financial crisis lies in the rapid expansion of domestic consumption, they may find it helpful and inspiring to re-read the writings of the late economist John Maynard Keynes.
Microsoft's latest move to fight software piracy on the mainland has stirred a storm of controversy in the local media and on the Internet. Although nobody has been able to produce a convincing argument against Microsoft, many commentators furiously attacked the company for what they considered as the "persecution" of tens of millions of counterfeit software users, who apparently included many commercial enterprises.
While the roller-coaster ride of the world stock markets in the past several weeks has kept our adrenal pumping, the real issue that will have a direct impact on our lives is the economic recession that is spreading from the US to the rest of the world.
Since the outbreak of the US credit crisis that is threatening to send the world economy into a tailspin, many economists have been asking what lessons can be learned from this financial calamity.
Jittery depositors triggering a rush of withdrawal at Bank of East Asia in Hong Kong before the holiday break have sounded the alarm that the ripple of the US financial crisis is threatening to wash across the capital markets of Asia onto the serene enclave of the commercial banks.
While the international capital markets were gripped by a sense of doom last week, a senior Chinese legislator heroically declared at a public forum that "it is time" to speed up the process of market deregulation in China to improve capital efficiency.
There is something US treasury officials can learn from their Chinese counterparts in managing the unfolding financial crisis .