I doubt it is as authoritative as the International Herald Tribune article quoting named Asian experts of major international investment houses, based in Hong Kong, that the regime will not devalue.
No one has alleged that the Tobin tax is a sort of Viagra pill for rejuvenating economies whose momentum is failing. A recession puts a government between a rock and a hard place whatever its political colour: devaluation has major disadvantages. Not devaluing has major disadvantages.
The twofold case I have been testing, largely for a friend, is that given the recession Hong Kong, as a statelet has been more resilient than might have been expected, because a) of its source of government revenue from publically owned land and b) its lack of a national debt and its shrewd currency board system. The fact that Taiwan has also tried a range of measures to protect domestic economic activities from speculation appears to have to have some loose parallels, but I will bow to further information.
Indeed Mark's suggestion in another post about three Orwellian financial areas emerging in the world, is very interesting. There is presumably a lot of communication going on between Far Eastern countries, while acknowledging their very different political and economic situations.
The Tobin tax is of interest IMO as a global tax, discussion of which is censored by Jessie Helms. All the more reason to discuss it.
Chris Burford
At 10:13 AM 8/23/98 +0100, you wrote:
>August 23 1998
> BUSINESS NEWS
>
>
>
> Workers are waking up to a rare phenomenon -
> the prospect of joblessness, writes Mark Graham
> in Hong Kong
> ©
> Disenchanted: Ng
> Yan-kwong pines for the
> good old days
>
> Jobs swept away as
> recession rips into Hong
> Kong economy
>
>
>HONG KONG has so far been spared the
>often-devastating summer typhoons that regularly
>wreak havoc in the region. Instead, another equally
>unpredictable phenomenon - unemployment - is
>scything its way through the economy, culling
>blue-collar workers and office staff alike.
>
<snip>
>Current figures show that a total of 161,000 of the
>3.34m workforce are jobless. At 4.8%, this is more
>than double the unemployment rate at the time of
>Hong Kong's handover last year to China.
>
>At one jobcentre last week 60 people were waiting
>for its doors to open, reflecting the seriousness of
>the daily lay-offs at hotels, department stores,
>telecommunications firms, stockbrokers and estate
>agencies.
>
>Ng Yan-kwong, 44, a construction worker, could
>rake in more than £100 a day during the glory
>years; now he would accept a third that wage just
>to have the dignity of a job. Signing on the dole is
>not a realistic option in a city where unemployment
>benefits are minimal and the face-loss factor
>crucially important.
<etc>