Directory

2018

• Rise of the Intangible Capital Economy
• What Apple and Airbnb have in common – intangible assets that power their profit margins
• Public Flat Rental Market and Increasing Housing Supply
• Public Flat Rental Market
• Property Rights Do Matter : Subsidized Sale Flats – Hong Kong versus Singapore
• Singapore’s public housing owners have one major edge over Hong Kong’s. Can Carrie Lam turn this around?
• Land for Development and Homes
• More Land for Development
• Public Housing, the Housing Ladder, and the Public Interest
• Revive the Role of Public Housing as a Step Towards Private Homeownership
• How to Sell Public Housing in Everyone’s Interest
• Housing Citizens in Hong Kong
• An Immediate Solution to Our Housing Problem
• Ownership Solves the Housing Problem
• Rethinking Hong Kong’s Fiscal Approach
• Money Back to Citizens
• Why Are Private Housing Units So Small?
• Small Private Housing Units Size

 

2017

• Our Future Housing Policy Commitment – Rental versus Ownership
• Housing Solution – Renting or Ownership
• The Public Rental Housing Waiting List is Getting Longer
• Public Housing Paradox
• The Labor Shortage Challenge
• Labor Shortage and Rise of Working Women
• Globalization Should Not be Blamed for the “Elephant Chart”
• “Elephant Chart” – Incorrect Blame on Globalization
• Hyper-Globalization and Hong Kong
• To Cross The Hurdle of Hyper-Globalization
• The Next Twenty Years
• How to Understand Twenty Years of Economic Performance
• Critical Junctures in Housing Policy Choices – Unintended Consequences of the 1967 Riot
• Critical Junctures in Housing Policy Choices – Distant Causes of the 1967 Riots
• Alleviating Absolute and Relative Poverty
• Information Hub, Common Law, and the Greater Bay Area Initiative
• Mispricing Risk from Chasing After Yields and Curbing Speculation
• Global Integration, Technological Advance, and Economic Performance
• STEM and Liberal Arts Education in the New Economy  
• Policy Secretaries, Civil Servants and Deferred Compensation
• Land and Housing Policy Ideas for the Next Five Years (Part III)
• Land and Housing Policy Ideas for the Next Five Years (Part II)
• Land and Housing Policy Ideas for the Next Five Years (Part I)
• Knowledge Economy and Political Leadership in the New Society
• Regulation of Property Prices
• Conservative Budgeting in a Populist World
• Arrow’s Theorem and the Pan-Democratic Vote for Establishment Candidates
• Do Free Markets Worsen Inequality?
• Investing for Personal and Social Prosperity – An Economist’s View
• CE Elections and the Political Left
• Billionaires and the State
• Turning the Housing Challenge into the Housing Solution
• Where has Oxfam Hong Kong been Wrong? – Tackle Near -Poverty (and Not Poverty) in the Next Five Years
• What Kind of Economic Inequality Can We Overcome in the Next 5 Years?
• Why has Housing Demand Continued to Grow?
• Black Swans and Disorders

 

2016

• Basic Law Interpretation – A Legal Origins Theory Perspective
• Politics of Hope After the Election of the 2017 Chief Executive Election Committee
• Fluidity of Identity
• The Politics of US Sugar Quotas and the Fate of Cuba and the Philippines
• The Rise and Fall of American Economic Growth
• American Political Realignment and Spiritual Awakening
• How Identity Divide America: The Democratic Transformation
• How Identity Divides America: The Republican Transformation
• The Tyranny of Regulations
• Political Realignment in America
• Globalization in the Age of Milton Friedman
• Poverty, Inequality, and Hope at Hollywood Plaza
• Home Truths
• Development Regulation and Housing Shortages
• Development Realities
• Restrictive Regulations and Rising Housing Prices
• Unlocking Development Gridlock in the New Territories
• After the LegCo Elections: Where Are We and How Did We Get Here?
• Let Prices Work in the Taxi Business
• The Logic of Universal Pensions and the Way Forward
• Why Has Rent Seeking Grown in Hong Kong?
• Why is Rent Seeking So Bad for Competition, Growth and Freedom?
• Promoting Competition Must Focus on Government Regulation
• Taxation, Regulation and Confiscation of Private Property Rights
• Freedom in Populist and Liberal Democracies
• Why University Fees Should Be Raised
• Education and the Service Economy
• Causes and Consequences of Women’s Economic Rise
• The Rise of Women in Hong Kong
• Labor Market Consequences of Public Rental Housing
• Star Trek and the Postmodern Generation
• Two Interpretations of the Intergenerational Socioeconomic Divide
• Nobel economist Joseph Stiglitz is misdiagnosing what’s behind the growing anger of the younger generation
• Political Reform or Livelihood Issues?
• Hong Kong Youth Activism and Parallels with German History
• The Three Faces of Liberalism
• The three faces of liberalism, and why power needs to be shared in Hong Kong
• Historicism, Postmodernism, and Political Violence: The Closing of the Human Mind
• The Closed Young Minds
• Closed Minds and Rising Political Violence
• Hong Kong’s Youth are Getting Obsessed with this One German Export
• Rising Political Violence and Socioeconomic Transformation
• The Mongkok Riots are a Wake-up Call about the Widening Wealth Gap
• The Lumpen Bourgeoisie and the Lumpenproletariat
• Let’s Look to History For Clues in Understanding the Social Mood Behind Mongkok Riots
• Negative Interest Rates
• Connectors and Startups: Hong Kong’s DNA
• Hong Kong as a Startup Hub: Mavens, Connectors and Salesmen
• Family Breakdown, Poverty and Discontent in Public Housing
• Fixed Exchange Rates, Economic Crisis, and Radical Populist Politics
• Will Entrepreneurial Decline Finally End?

 

2015

• Social and Economic Concerns in Designing Retirement Protection
• Making Sense of the Fed’s Interest Rate Increase
• Regulation, Rent Seeking, Innovation, and Economic Growth
• Legal Origin and the Crisis in Hong Kong
• An Economic View of Markets, Values, and Morals
• What Money Can’t Buy
• Inequality, TSA, Dishwasher Pay and Rising Returns to Schooling
• Positive Non-interventionism and Innovation
• Positive Non-interventionism as Governance Strategy
• Demystifying the Rising Poverty Rate
• Income, Health and Lifetime Well-being Around the World
• Origins of English, French and Chinese Legal Systems
• Ruled By A Mixed Past
• Civil Law, Common Law, and Social Control
• Common Law, Civil Law, and Financial Market Development
• Mandatory Provident Fund Needs Urgent Reform
• Time to get rid of offsets by employers in Hong Kong’s MPF retirement fund
• Reflections of Old Age Poverty in Public Renter Housing Estates
• Is Hong Kong Overeducated?
• How Regulation Has Stifled the Taxi Industry
• The Unhappy State of Hong Kong’s Taxi Service
• The New Territories and the English Character
• Justice Beleaguered
• Why Does Hong Kong Need Democratic Elections?
• Retail Economics and Price Theory
• Who is Afraid of a Popularly Elected Chief Executive?
• Building Codes and Postwar Reconstruction in Hong Kong
• Disastrous rent control laws and building codes in Hong Kong
• Democracy, Decline and Vested Interests
• Studies on the Development of Democracies and Hong Kong’s Political Deadlock
• Regulation and the High Price of Land
• It Is Not Pocketing It First, Every Step Counts
• Lee Kuan Yew’s Fundamental Axiom
• Growing Up in Hong Kong Before and After 1980 – A Statistical Portrait of Public Housing and Divorce Characteristics
• Growing Up in Hong Kong Before and After 1980 – A Statistical Portrait of Education Opportunities
• Early Childhood Education: Unlocking the Secrets of Income Growth and Inequality
• Early Investment in the Disadvantaged – Key to Closing Inequality Gap
• Truths and Myths behind the Individual Visit Scheme and the Ku Klux Klan
• Shades of Ku Klux Klan in stir against parallel traders
• On Hong Kong’s High Land Prices Again
• Property Owners Main Beneficiaries of Limited Housing Supply
• Irrational Politics and Their Romantic Roots
• Health care and home ownership most pressing concerns for an ageing population
• Are Working Hours Too Long in Hong Kong?
• Public Corruption in Traditional and Modern China
• Public corruption in China: Then and now
• Greece and Hong Kong – Fiscal Opposites, Same Politics
• Hong Kong, Greece in the Same Boat
• Attract Immigrants or Become Like Japan
• Non-Profits Need Competition and Transparency
• Making a World of Difference – Competing Ideas
• New Strategies Needed as Third Industrial Revolution Unfolds
• Making The Future Work
• The Roots of Rebel
• Is One Person One Vote a Primordial Method?

 

2014

• Random Thoughts at Year’s End
• Causes and Consequences of More Time and Money
• Universal Suffrage in 2017 is Important
• On Generation Conflict and Youth Downward Mobility
• Nine Reasons For Saying No To Populist Democracy
• Why populist democracy is wrong for Hong Kong
• The Occupy Movement and the Anatomy of Populist Democracy
• Can Democracy Solve Society’s Ailments?
• Business Entrepreneurship and the Coming End of an Aging Workforce
• The Lord of The Flies – An Allegorical Novel
• The Lord of Human Nature
• Hong Kong Must Regain Momentum to Deliver a Popularly Elected Chief Executive in 2017
• Homeownership and the Youth Protest Movement
• Chief Executive Elected by Universal Suffrage Will Bridge the Gap Between the Two Narratives
• Thoughts on the Protest Movement
• Let the Restoration Begin
• From the Bottom Up: The Pan-Democrat Narrative on Hong Kong’s Political Development (Part III)
• The Establishment View on Hong Kong’s Democratic Political Development
• Three Narratives on Hong Kong’s Democratic Political Development
• We Don’t Need Universal Social Pensions Schemes to Help the Elderly Poor
• Finding $3.336 Trillions of Housing Capital
• Health care could account for almost a third of Hong Kong GDP by end of century
• How Hong Kong could be a better city
• Why Have We Underestimated Housing Demand Growth?
• How Venice Became a Museum?
• The Chief Executive’s Political Reform Report Should Not Be Rushed
• The Challenge of Poverty, Near-Poverty and Inequality in the 21st Century
• The High Regulation Cost of Development: What Thomas Piketty’s Famous Book Really Says
• Representation of the Chief Executive Nominating Committee
• Education and Earnings of the Bottom 99%
• The Top 1% and Top 10% of Income Earners
• Gary Becker’s Contribution to Economics and the Chicago School
• Remembering My Teacher Professor Gary Becker
• Factors Critical for Improving Intergenerational Mobility
• Upward Mobility in the US and Hong Kong (Part 1)
• Polarization of the Chief Executive Elections and Political Development (Part 4)
• The Chief Executive Elections and Political Development (Part 3) – Popular Political Representation through Functional Constituencies
• The Chief Executive Elections and Political Development (Part 2) – Functional and Geographical Constituencies Compared
• The Chief Executive Elections and Political Development (Part 1)
• Tackling Long-term Budget Deficits in a Free and Ageing Society (Part 3)
• Health Care and Rising Public Budgets in a Free Society (Part 2)
• On Balancing Rising Long-Term Budgets for a Free Society (Part 1)
• Childhood Memories to Salute Women’s Day
• Fears, Economic Crises, and Political Coalitions in the Rise of the Welfare State
• When Society and Politics become a Tyranny of Minorities
• Rising Government Expenditures – Tyranny of the Majority, Tyranny of the Minorities and Bureaucratic Inertia
• Tackling Poverty through Redistribution and Growth (Part 2)
• Tackling Poverty through Redistribution and Growth (Part 1)
• The Poverty Line and the Value of Public Housing Subsidies to the Poor
• On Bitcoin and the Prospect of Digital Cryptocurrencies
• Reflections on American Slavery, the Foxconn Suicides and the Third Plenum
• Divorce, Inequality, Poverty, and the Vanishing Middle Class (II) – Rekindling Hong Kong’s Magic (Part VI)

 

2013

• Divorce, Inequality, Poverty, and the Vanishing Middle Class (I) – Rekindling Hong Kong’s Magic (Part V)
• Human Capital Enhancement through Education and Immigration – Rekindling Hong Kong’s Magic (Part IV)
• Adam Smith’s Moral Principles
• Adam Smith’s Political Economy and its Significance in the Modern World
• The Population Quality Challenge – Rekindling Hong Kong’s Magic (Part III)
• The Population Numbers Challenge – Rekindling Hong Kong’s Magic (Part II)
• Rekindling Hong Kong’s Magic (Part I)
• Divorce, Remarriage, and Long-Term Housing Strategy
• Coase on Controlling Light Pollution and Preserving Country Parks
• Education, Divorce, and Household Income Inequality in Hong Kong
• Education and Income Inequality in Hong Kong
• Understanding Differential Growth Rates in Singapore and Hong Kong: Role of Policy and Human Capital
• Reflections on School Subventions – St. Stephen’s Girls’ College and the English Schools Foundation
• Poverty, Intergenerational Social Mobility and Human Capital Investment
• Poverty, Inequality, Intergenerational Mobility, and Capital Market Imperfections
• Why Do White Form HOS Secondary Market Units Sell at Market Prices?
• My Romance with the University of Chicago
• China’s Path to Modernization: Barrington Moore and Beyond
• Barrington Moore on Why Communism Triumphed in China
• Lord and Peasant in the Making of the Chinese Revolution
• Barrington Moore on Dictatorship and Democracy
• Economic Thoughts on Poverty Alleviation (Part 2)
• Economic Thoughts on Poverty Alleviation (Part 1)
• Civil Service Pensions and Corruption Deterrence
• Has Hong Kong Lost Its Magic? (Part Five)
• Has Hong Kong Lost Its Magic? (Part Four)
• Has Hong Kong Lost Its Magic? (Part Three)
• Has Hong Kong Lost Its Magic? (Part Two)
• Has Hong Kong Lost Its Magic? (Part One)
• Lincoln’s Heresthetics and Moral Principles
• The Political Economy of Lincoln’s Heresthetics
• Lincoln, Heresthetics and the Birth of the Republican Era
• Income, Expenditure, Savings and the Poverty Line
• Hong Kong’s Construction Industry: Diagnosis and Prognosis
• How to Draw a Poverty Line (Part 2)? ––– Using Age as the Anchor
• How to Draw a Poverty Line (Part 1)
• Is There Sex Discrimination in the Labor Market?
• Housing, Retirement and the Economy – Why Family Savings and Investing in Children Matters
• Economics of the Family and Same-Sex Marriages
• The Value of Not Working and Its Policy Implications
• What is the Purpose of a Competition Policy?
• Commemorating Joseph Schumpeter and Milton Friedman on Capitalism (Part II)

 

2012

• Commemorating Joseph Schumpeter and Milton Friedman on Capitalism (Part I)
• What is the Impact of Minimum Wages on Household Income Distribution?
• Why the Minimum Wage Harms the Economy?
• Old Age Living Allowances or Universal Social Pensions
• How a Maritime Republic Became a Museum? –– The Decline of Venice
• Long-Term Housing Strategy and Homes for Hong Kong Residents –– Eighty Per Cent Homeownership (Part II)
• Long-Term Housing Strategy and Homes for Hong Kong Residents — Eighty Per Cent Homeownership (Part I)
• Urban Housing in Hong Kong, Singapore, and Lima: Implications for China
• How the Applications List System Becomes the Winner’s Curse?
• Long-Term Housing Strategy After the Mid-1980s
• Long-Term Housing Strategy Before the Mid-1980s
• Stranded between Singapore’s Way and Lima’s Other Path
• Lima’s Other Path, Tsoi Yuen Village, and North East New Territories
• Inefficiency and the Scourge of Small Public Housing Units
• Small Housing Units and the Inequity Effects of the Public Housing Program
• Why are Housing Units so Small in Hong Kong?
• The HOS Secondary Market Finally Warms Up
• Economic Integration with the Mainland –– Linked Rate, Domestic Stability, and Dual Integration (Part II)
• Economic Integration with the Mainland –– Linked Rate, Domestic Stability, and Dual Integration (Part I)
• Economic Integration with the Mainland –– Population and Poverty in a Triumphant City
• Economic Integration with the Mainland – Pregnant Mainland Mothers and the Right of Abode
• Economic Integration with the Mainland – Learning from the Multi Fiber Agreement
• Economic Consequences of Universal Old Age Social Pensions
• Can We Afford Old Age Social Security?
• On Public Health Care Finances
• On the Origins of Deep Contradictions (Part II)
• On the Origins of Deep Contradictions (Part I)
• Education for Equality and Growth
• The ABC Guide to Political Economy
• Core Values, Functional Constituencies and the Democratic Principle
• Economic Competition and Structural Change
• On the Creative and Innovative Economy
• Why is Housing so Expensive?
• External Shocks and Price Stability under the Linked Rate
• How Permeable Should Be the Border? – Hong Kong Growing as Part of China: A Historical Perspective (Part II)
• Hong Kong Growing as a Part of China: A Historical Perspective (Part I)
• Testing Milton Friedman
• The Chicago Economist’s Road from Social Engineer to Preacher of Science
• The Chicago School’s Road From Public Policy Advocacy to the Study of Political Economy
• Dolce Gabbana, Apple and Nike — the Economics of Discrimination
• The Chicago School Innovations in Economics
• The Chicago School on Assumptions and Predictions in Economics
• Emergence of the Chicago School of Economics

 

2011

• Liberalism versus Populism
• Taxation, Regulation and the Rational Politician
• Germany and Europe: The History
• The Economic Future of Europe
• Global Money, Local Politics, and Regional Imbalances in Europe
• Why there is Speculation in the Market for Pre-Sale Housing Units (Part II)
• Why there is Speculation in the Market for Pre-Sale Housing Units (Part I)
• Easy Money, Tight Money, and Market Monetarism
• Global Economic Integration and the Distribution of Housing Wealth in Hong Kong
• On Housing Policy and Social Justice
• On Government Failures during the Great Depression and Great Recession (Part II)
• On Government Failures during the Great Depression and Great Recession (Part I)
• Public Sector Housing Policies for Hong Kong and Mainland China – Sustaining Growth, Harmony, and Stability (Part V)
• Public Sector Housing Policies for Hong Kong and Mainland China – Unfreeze Land Values, Liberate Housing Serfs (Part IV)
• Public Sector Housing Policies for Hong Kong and Mainland China – A Proposal for Hong Kong (Part III)
• Public Sector Housing Policies for Hong Kong and Mainland China – Socio-Economic Consequences (Part II)
• Public Sector Housing Policies for Hong Kong and Mainland China – Core Considerations (Part I)
• Obama Must Lead or Become Irrelevant
• Politics in the Knowledge Society
• Social Challenges of the Knowledge Society
• From Blue Collar Worker to Knowledge Worker
• Corporate Social Responsibility: Meeting Social Needs in Hong Kong
• Corporate Social Responsibility from the Perspective of Underdevelopment in the Middle East
• What is Corporate Social Responsibility? – Three Stakeholder Views
• What is Corporate Social Responsibility – Do We Need It? And Why?
• The Iron Horse and Strategic Factors in Economic Growth
• The Global Economy Shifts East
• From the Causes of Apartheid to the Failures of Minimum Wage
• Cities, Human Capital and Economic Development
• Diversity and Occasional Anarchy: The Key to a Great City
• Why Reforming Subsidized Housing Makes Sense
• How Can We Get Out of the Housing Quandary?
• Population Challenges in Hong Kong – And Related Issues
• Raising Wages in China – Is This All It Takes?
• Contradictions in Hong Kong’s Policy Environment
• On the Surprise Element of Revolutions : Why Tunisia and Egypt?
• HK’s Budget Policy is Still the Most Sensible
• What Innovation Does China Need in the Next Five Year Plan ?
• Italian Opera Houses – Exemplary Model for Las Vegas and Macau
• Will China’s Economy Slowdown?
• What a Competition Bill Cannot Do (Part Two)
• What a Competition Bill Cannot Do (Part One)
• Minimum Wage, Employment and Poverty
• Ten Years of Low Yields, Mandatory Provident Fund Needs Reform