Well I like HK much more than SIN. One of the best places I have seen in life. For your info, I am not living there. I get respect there doesnt matter if in office or on the street. There are nice places to stay in HK too. Dont worry.
"The art of pussy-hunting is of vital importance to the state. It is a matter of life and death, a road either to safety or to ruin. Hence under no circumstances can it be neglected.":eek:
That's what makes it a fun place to stay at. Unless you're the person that got pushed and shoved. If Shanghai wants to become the next financial center, easy.... just open a building that is 2-3x bigger than the CME. And have Open Outcry.
Being a major world financial centre has nothing to do with 1) the language spoken 2) the coolness of the people 3) the freedom of the govt 4) the way they treat their handicapped 5) the number of cable tv channels 6) the hotness of their women 7) the quality of their plumbing and mass transport 8) ..... et al most of the above are biproducts of wealth, which is in turn the biproduct of the human capital in a society and how it is put to work through a combination of the markets and govt. A major financial centre is nothing more than a giant marketplace where savings circulate. Geographic proximity matters for two reasons. One is because at present we live on a round spinning ball of rock that gets its light from the sun, and most of us prefer to be awake when it's light. So time zones will not go away as a major factor for distributing global liquidity. The other is that networks of trust don't easily extend more than a short flight away, and networks of trust are necessary to bring deals to the table. A banker in New York is unlikely to get a lot of Indian borrowers to issue securities through him because there is a banker in Mumbai who can meet those borrowers 10 times as often and therefore has an edge in winning their trust. Hence minor local centres of finance persist. If you understand the above, then you have no problem seeing where this all leads to. The formula for creating a London or New York is a giant pool of savings within a 4 hour flight. A giant pool of issuers (debt & equity) within a 4 hour flight. A giant exchange point (servicing either a large seller or a large buyer) for commodities within a 4 hour flight (for futures). When you have those things, then somewhere in that radius will *have* to become a major financial centre. China is on it's way to scoring big on all 3 points.
I love the way all these racist calling people shout it at every opportunity as if we're all KKK members. The sort of pricks who get offended if you ask for a black coffee. GROW UP.
That was a long time ago, different world these days, ie super communications versus the past. Anyway, why not have 3 financial capitals of the world. London for Europe, NY for the Americas and then China for Asia. Makes sense.