Recently in International Money & Finance Category

Here's a nice article from Bloomberg comparing Singapore and Hong Kong. Spontaneous Order has a few recent posts about Hong Kong as well, here and here. I think HK died as a bastion of Laissez-Fair capitalism back during the Asian crisis a decade ago when the government propped up the equity markets( but they made a nice profit!!). It should be noted that the direction the city-states are going in seemingly to be the opposite of each other. Singapore is relaxing rules and regulations while Hong Kong seems to want to continue to meddle in economic affairs. Of course there are different dynamics here as Singapore's relaxing social rules as much as economic ones and HK is more meddling in economics than in social issues. So, it's probably a bit strong to say that they are heading opposite directions.

This post by Stephen Kirchner reminds me of conversation I had a month ago with a visiting prof with a similar background to mine in trading. It went something like this:

Visiting Prof: So, are you doing any trading?

Me: No, not really but this market seems to be heading higher

Visiting Prof: Yes, but I have a dollar short here against the Euro. It's worked out well with European interest rates heading higher.

Me: Don't you find it odd that how the financial markets view currency movements is much different than how academic economists explain them?

He laughed as an acknowledgement