A decade of loss

From 1998 to 2008, HK went from downhill to uphill and then downhill again. From 1998 to 2003, our economy was from bad to worse and then worst. Fortunately, the central authority started injecting cash to us by allowing people to visit HK. We were getting better from 2004 onwards until late 2007. Now we are struggling again but the central authority is busy helping itself so we may not be as lucky as we were.

From 1998 to 2007, we have lost a whole decade without achieving anything substantial to prepare us for the next financial crisis. We did not upgrade ourselves, we did not diversify our economy, and we did not know what to do next but only took a favourable policy from the central authority for granted. The financial crisis is destroying our economy and this may be the end of the peril of the East. There is a Chinese saying that "when you do not work hard during your young ages, you will have a miserable life when you become old".

Financial Crisis

Now we are all in the centre of financial crisis. Our pension funds are losing money and people are losing jobs. Some elders are forced to work in their 60's or even 70's. For those who can keep their job in the coming 2 years are the lucky ones.

The financial crisis comes from the US and then spread to the whole world. We can all blame the US to make us like that but if we were not tempted by our own desire for fast money by investing into complex financial products, we would not become what we are now.

In the past, we envied those who worked for Investment Banks and many people were desperate to become a member of them. Now it's all over. Although we did not understand why people in the Investment Banks could make so much money, we just wanted to be the same. Now we know that their huge income came from those complex investment products that lured people to invest in. When the bubbles are explosed, we all need to start from the ground again.