Author Archives: Lion Rock Institute

If policy engineered with careful design actually worked, we’d be living in utopia In an oped to the public recently, Secretary of Labour and Welfare Matthew Cheung cited that Minimum Wage was a safe policy because of “careful design,” saying that the “possible economic downside of a Statutory Minimum WageContinue reading>

Pierre Gave reviews Prisoner of the State: The Secret Journal of Premier Zhao Ziyang Plain clothes officers often carry umbrellas in Tiananmen Square to block reporters’ cameras from view. Bao Pu, one of the editors of Prisoner of the State, is the son of Bao Tong, a former aide toContinue reading>

Eamonn Butler is interviewed on his most recent book, The Rotten State of Britain The way to grow poor, the way to grow rich. By his own admission, Eamonn Butler spent several fruitless years trying to generate enthusiasm from publishers for his book chronicling what he perceives as our nation’sContinue reading>

Dr. Khalil Ahmad on semantics aren’t FTAs only challenge – there’s a ways to go before trade is truly free There are many opportunities and challenges to be found within Regional Free Trade Areas. Various issues highlight points of Free Trade Agreements that negate the very concept of Free Trade.Continue reading>

Wallace Chan expands on Hong Kong’s highest level of economic freedom in Economic Freedom of the World: 2009 Annual Report Economic freedom is the key building block of the most prosperous nations. Hong Kong continues its reign as the most economically free region on the globe, as it once againContinue reading>

Arnold King argues that mortgage securitization should be allowed to die in order to keep taxpayers from inheriting more risk The Humpty-Dumpty of mortgage securitization. Like Humpty-Dumpty, mortgage securitization has taken a big fall. There is a widespread presumption that government policy, if not all the king’s horses and allContinue reading>

Andrew P. Morriss dispels the bad reputation that onshore governments have given offshore financial centres and warns that in efforts to resist competition, onshores risk further damaging their economies Demonstrators react to onshore politicians blaming offshore financial centres for “contributing to the crisis” and calling for regulatorymeasures to limit offshores’Continue reading>

Hong Kong is competitive not only as an attractive place to do business but, in its distinct way, also an attractive place to live. Larry E. Ribstein exposes the wider motivations behind current international pressure to alter Hong Kong’s tax law From sanctions to blacklists, there is international pressure toContinue reading>

Bill Stacey argues that as the market has changed the original policy rational of the Hong Kong Mortgage Corporation has disappeared The Hong Kong Mortgage Corporation (HKMC) has reached its use-by date. It has sought to survive through a strategy of diversification that takes on higher risk with public funds.Continue reading>

Hans Mahncke uncovers the roots of Hong Kong’s competition problems and explains why they will not be remedied by a cross-sector competition law An interesting feature of competition law is that it is usually enforced administratively through a special agency, rather than judicially through the courts. A year and aContinue reading>