25th October 08

Sydney Morning Herald

Kaixin – want to know what’s happening? This is a good explanation.

Confidence is a wise investment

Next time you open your wallet or purse and take out a $20 note, pause to ask yourself what it's worth. The answer is not $20. The value of the polymer it's printed on is a few cents. What supports the notion that it's worth anything more? So the vital vulnerability that leads to crisis is not debt or even a shortage of gold. It's a lack of confidence. Crises, at root, stem from emotion. The precise instruments and markets involved are merely the details in an age-old cycle of euphoria followed by fear.

Asia Times Online

Asia's opportunity for say in a new order
By Antoaneta Bezlova

BEIJING - Cast in the role of global savior in the unfolding financial turmoil, China is hosting a meeting of Asian and European leaders in Beijing this week that is expected to castigate the Anglo-Saxon model of capitalism and press for a reshaped global economic order. "Can Asia be global economy’s best hope," asked an editorial in China's Economic Observer last week. Noting that Asia hardly played any role during the global economic recovery after the Great Depression of 1929, the paper suggested that the continent’s established and emerging economies constituted the world’s best chance for recovery after the present financial crisis

Microsoft comes knocking in China
By Wu Zhong, China editor

HONG KONG - United States software giant Microsoft flexed its muscles on Global Anti-Piracy Day on October 21 by launching an unprecedented campaign in China against the use of pirated Windows XP, Office 2003 and Office 2007. The move panicked Chinese Internet surfers, the vast majority of whom use pirated software, and sparked off controversy whether the US company's actions contravene Chinese law.