Business
31 October 2009
Martin Vander Weyer
Hong Kong
Not four hours since the plane touched down at Chek Lap Kok and I’m howling ‘My Way’ into a Wanchai karaoke machine to the discomfort of my Chinese friends, who all sing like Charles Aznavour. I’ll give some of the credit — for my energy level, not my singing — to Virgin Atlantic’s Upper Class ‘flatbed’, which is so comfortable that Sir Richard Branson is busy claiming patent rights so he can sue competitors who copy the design. But I’ll give most of the credit to Hong Kong itself: brash, noisy, diesel-fumed, neon-lit, money-crazy, and always energising. After...
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31 October 2009
Elliot Wilson
No major city anywhere has achieved as much as London has with such poor public transport at its disposal. Trams that break down; bendy buses that burst into flames; an underground rail network that overheats in the summer and taxes the patience and the wallets of millions of commuters all year round.
The experience has been likened by London’s own mayor, Boris Johnson, to ‘sardine-tin travel’ — doing little for its citizens’ quality of life, or its reputation as the world’s leading centre for financial services, media and communications.
Such woeful infrastructure also explains why Mayor Boris, a former...
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24 October 2009
David Coates
The eight feet of rain brought by Typhoon Morakot washed away a good proportion of President Ma Ying-jeou’s remaining popularity. Forecasters failed to predict the force of the August storm and evacuation measures were inadequate. More than 700 mountain villagers in southern Taiwan were buried alive by mudslides or swept away. Ma made penitential visits to comfort survivors but had to endure awkward moments as villagers harangued him in front of the television cameras. Another item on the charge sheet was his remark that the army’s prime role in future would be disaster relief — rather than putting up enough...
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24 October 2009
Ruth Lea
The state of the public finances and the need to cut public borrowing were, quite rightly, the issues which dominated the political conference season this year. Whatever the country’s other problems, and there are many, the burgeoning sea of red ink in the Treasury’s books should concern us all. In his April budget, the Chancellor forecast borrowing of around £175 billion, equivalent to about 12 per cent of GDP, for this financial year and next. Borrowing was then expected to fall back, reflecting economic recovery. But the projected improvements in the figures should not remotely be interpreted as signalling a...
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24 October 2009
Neil Collins
Drive south down the M6 towards the Midlands and you pass an illuminated sign at junction 15. If you’re lucky, it will display the following message: ‘To J8 for M5, 34 miles, 34 minutes’. A couple of junctions further on, you can’t miss a similar sign with the message: ‘M6 Toll clear’. Ah, you say to yourself, that’s all very fine, but I’m not a boy racer looking to do a ton and get away with it. The earlier sign effectively tells me there’s no point in investing £4.70 to drive what may be the world’s most expensive 27 miles...
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17 October 2009
Scott Payton
Should you ever buy any investment — a share, a commodity, an acre of land — when its price stands at an all-time high, having risen by half in less than a year? Or does that make you the ‘greater fool’, the greedy investor who buys into the top of the rally? In recent days, the price of the world’s oldest and most universally recognised store of value, gold, has surged to all-time highs above $1,050 an ounce. Have those of us who didn’t buy months ago just missed the bus, or is there further to go?
The gold price...
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