User 142738

Chinese Lessons

This is far different from the AT&T breakup. When AT&T was broken up, there was one system. Remember the Bell Labs credo, "One System, One Policy, Universal Service"?

On the contrary, the Chinese government is demanding that multiple companies pool their systems together.

Book Review: Jim Rogers' "A Bull in China"

If you believe China is anything like Western civilization in terms of any kind of freedom, you’re more naïve than you look. Everything — from the stores, to the utility companies, to the television stations, to the Internet service providers — is State–owned and State–controlled. Visit a Chinese fuel station if you don’t believe me: they’ll limit you to CNY 100 worth of gasoline (USD 13.99) — at gunpoint!

Even the money system is ruled by an iron fist. Chinese banks not dealing in Hong Kong dollars will beg for your Aussies, Euros, Greenbacks, Kiwis, and Loonies, but when you try to buy some foreign currency, they’ll treat you like a pervert in a porno shop. That’s why the country has rampant inflation and rampant deflation all at the same time.

And don’t mention the stock market. Conspiracy theorists claim the U.S. government props up the Dow and S&P. Well, in Shanghai, the Chinese government really does prop up the Shanghai Index and Hang Seng! The logic that most people like George Soros and Jim Rogers (who’s been called a hypocrite by other Chinese nationals) use is the same logic used by the shyster investors who nearly collapsed the economy of Great Britain, exploited the corruption in Mexico, and overinflated the Japanese real estate market.

Get out of that five–star penthouse suite in Beijing and take a look around. It’s not a pretty place to live. Add to that the fact that the 2008 Beijing Olympics are being politicized far more than the 1936 Nazi–era Berlin Olympics were, and you’re looking at a time bomb ready to explode. Or a behemoth of lies and deceit about to collapse on itself.

Book Review: Jim Rogers' "A Bull in China"

No; the Hong Kong dollar is fully convertible into U.S. dollars because it's both pegged to and backed by U.S. dollars. The Chinese money regime applies to all currencies, not just the U.S. dollar.