Hello!! It's Joseph

談到鍾情本國歷史，中國人毫不遜色於英國人。英國財相奧斯本本周的中國貿易與投資之行再次使人回想起了兩國經貿交往的歷程。 在18與19世紀，正是英國人帶領西方列強迫使中國打開了其面向世界的經貿之門。 中國人一定還記得，1793年英國特使馬戛爾尼爵士率領第一支英國經貿代表團訪問中國，試圖說服強大的中華帝國賦予英國商人更多的經商自由。 當彼之時，大英「日不落帝國」和中華「中央之國」存在著相互競爭互不交融的世界觀。 如今，200多年過去，世界發生了天翻地覆的變化，但兩國在世界觀方面的差異依然存在。 由於利益的衝突、文化的差異以及馬戛爾尼拒絕給乾隆皇帝磕頭，英國的首次中國經貿之行歸於失敗。 古老戰艦 馬戛爾尼曾描述說，「中華帝國就像一艘古老而破敗的一流戰艦，過去150年有幸靠著一代代勤勉的船長使其免於沉沒，它勝過其鄰國之處僅在於它的體積與外表。」 馬戛爾尼說，一旦遇到一位不稱職者擔任船長，這艘大船將會遭殃。它可能不會立即沉沒，可能還會拖著破爛的船體漂浮一陣，最後在岸邊撞碎，再也無法在舊有的船體上進行修複。 對於中國這艘航船的現任船長、中國國家主席習近平來說，馬戛爾尼的這段話無疑極具可讀性。 在經歷了一個半世紀的屈辱—外國入侵，包括鴉片戰爭敗於英國，不停的內戰，經濟崩潰以及瘋狂的毛澤東時代，習近平可能會和其他許多中國人一樣承認，馬戛爾尼對中國的評論具有相當的預見性。 時過境遷 但面對目前世界發生的具有諷刺意味的變化，習近平的臉上可能會浮出一抹微笑。中國已經成為全球最大的主權財富基金國之一。在這種情況下，又有一支帶著完全不同信息的英國經貿代表團來到中國。 英國財相奧斯本說，中國的經濟正在發生變化。那些認為中國仍然是一個低工資、低技術經濟體的人正在犯著嚴重的錯誤。中國正在成為一個後起之秀的工業國，這為英國提供了巨大的商機。 中國已經在諸如希思羅機場和泰晤士水公司一些英國的重要領域購買了相當的股權，現在它的公司-其中許多是國有企業-正積極投資英國的基建、核能、再生能源、電訊和房地產等項目。 對於中英來兩國來說，這都是一個全新的局面。 過去兩個世紀，中英兩國的經濟關係只是貿易。起初，英國需要中國的茶和瓷器，但卻無法提供中國人喜愛的東西。 在馬戛爾尼訪華之後，中國皇帝乾隆曾致信英王喬治三世說，「天朝物產豐盈，無所不有，原不籍外夷貨物以通有無。」 英國於是只有鴉片向中國輸入了。長話短說，這導...

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大家都去過銀行，比如說去存錢，定期3.5％左右的利息，活期接近於0，那麼少的利息你滿意嗎？那貸款呢？銀行的貸款不是給一般人的，而是給國企還有地方 政府的，我們的民營企業拿得到貸款錢嗎？基本拿不到，所以按照我們的統計，中國超過99％的中小民營企業被排除在銀行之外，它們不得不進入黑市或者高利貸 市場去籌措資金，四分利，那就是年息48％，這一切就是因為國有銀行的壟斷。 這些國有銀行的存在使得老百姓中的存款者受到損失，借款者也受到了損 失，需不需要改革？現在只有兩個辦法：第一個，由上而下的強勢改革，李克強總理必須力排眾議，堅持改革，比如說上海自由貿易區它就是一個金融改革，「一行 三會」堅決反對，最後他力排眾議，堅持改革；另外一個改革就叫做「由下而上」的改革，給這些國有銀行造成極大經營壓力，這個推動者竟和金融無關，這個企業 家叫做馬雲，他搞了一個餘額寶。 「鯰魚效應」三板斧 馬雲大概有八億的用戶，現在支付寶的餘額高達 300億，那是不給利息的，餘額寶就是把你支付寶裏面的餘額給你利息，就是這麼簡單。可是它就是一個能夠由下而上推動你銀行改革的一個「鯰魚效應」，所以 與其叫做餘額寶，不如叫「鯰魚寶」好一點。這個餘額寶它非常重要，在不經意之間，馬雲同志透過餘額寶，帶來了可怕的「三板斧」： 第一板斧是成本大 戰，因為他給我們現在現存的這個國有銀行帶來極大的競爭壓力，他的餘額寶和一個貨幣基金天弘基金合作，收0.25％服務費，我就以華夏貨幣基金為例，他們 要收四種費，加在一起差不多要收0.88％的技術服務費，所以馬雲的餘額寶的天弘基金收的費用只有華夏貨幣基金的30％，所以馬雲第一板斧就砍掉了70％ 的成本。 第二個叫客戶大戰，銀行有個很有趣的「二八定律」，八成客戶都是我們這種小客戶，小客戶這些人人數特別多，錢又特別少，銀行特別不愛服務 他們。我舉個例子，馬雲在6月17日推出餘額寶之後，到六月底，大概半個月不到的時間，就有251萬人加入，66億元，所以平均每個人的餘額是2,629 元，這251萬人如果都去銀行有甚麼結果？每個人只要花一分鐘的時間，就需要5,229天才能夠處理完，換成銀行的話，就需要1,000家銀行一個禮拜才 能夠處理完，到最後發現一個人只是2,629元，要花這麼多時間處理，那銀行可能做這種事嗎？不可能的，因此80％的客戶必然是餘額寶的潛在客戶，因為上 餘額寶可以得到最好的服...

A deposit insurance program is a measure to guarantee that a certain level of deposits are guaranteed by the state even if a bank cannot pay them. The new insurance system is also seen as laying a foundation for interest rate liberalization, as a market-oriented interest rate would force banks to lose built-in interest rate margins and could put depositors at risk. China started to relax its cap on interest rates from last June, lifting the ceiling of deposit rates while lowering the floor on lending rates. Currently, Chinese banks can pay up to 110 percent of the benchmark deposit rate - currently 3 percent a year - and charge loan rates as low as 70 percent of the benchmark level of 6 percent. This ensures that banks are guaranteed a margin of at least 90 basis points. STRONGER RISK CONTROLS In the report, the central bank also pledged to increase flexibility of the yuan's exchange rate as well as to quicken the pace of setting up a key benchmark rate for th...

China late on Friday unveiled details of the long-term economic reforms agreed to at this month's Third Plenum, a key meeting of the country's top leaders. The 60-point reform plan is seen paving the way for sweeping changes in the world's second-biggest economy as it tries to steer away from investment-led growth to a consumption-driven economy. Here's what you need to know about the main reforms. 1) One-child policy relaxed: The controversial policy introduced in 1979 has contributed to falling birth rates. Now the policy is to be eased to allow couples to have two children if one the parents is an only child. Baby-product related stocks such as Goodbaby International soared in Hong Kong on Monday following the easing of the one-child policy. "The reason they (China's leaders) have to change the one-child policy is because China has aging population and everybody knows an aging population needs to be supported," David Kuo, CE...

Myths of Running: Forefoot, Barefoot and Otherwise foot pronation and injury risk Pounding Pavement by Heel or Toe Running injuries. A review of the epidemiological literature. big seven body breakdowns The Five Most Troublesome Running Injuries Common Running Injuries: Prevention and Treatment      

The US may have averted a debt default, and the government is open for business again, but the compromise is far from a long term solution. Global Chief Investment Officer of Credit Suisse’s Private Banking & Wealth Management division, Michael Strobaek, says that while risks have been abated in the short term investors should not chase rising prices. Cushla Sherlock: The disputes in the US were resolved just before the deadline. Have the risks now been reduced in the short term? Michael Strobaek: Yes. Risks have been reduced in the short term. Uncertainty disappeared and we saw markets move slightly higher as a consequence. However, whether the compromise can really be called a 'solution' is questionable. Therefore, uncertainty may come back again . For now, we have three new deadlines: The debt ceiling has been raised until February 7, 2014, the budget is now financed through January 15, 2014 and Congress has set up a Special Committee to report back o...

Cushla Sherlock: A year ago, European Central Bank President Mario Draghi settled markets with his vow to do "whatever it takes" to save the euro. How would you characterize the current situation in the Eurozone? Michael Strobaek: The situation is significantly better now. With his comments a year ago, Mario Draghi managed to put a backstop to fears that the Eurozone was on the verge of collapsing. Since then, we have seen peripheral bond spreads come down significantly. That too, has calmed the situation and made it clear to investors that the Eurozone will move on from the recession. Growth indicators for the area have positively surprised recently, showing that the Eurozone is slowly recovering. While investors still called the Eurozone the number one risk a year ago, today they are most concerned about a hard landing of the Chinese economy. Will we see a further slowdown in China's growth? First, we do not think China is in for a hard landing. But growth is likely to ...

Cushla Sherlock: Why should investors consider emerging markets? Sakthi Siva: There are two reasons for investors to consider emerging markets. First, because of the longer-term structural forces. That includes good demographics, young populations, good return on equity, strong corporate balance sheets, good sovereign balance sheets, and improving trends in all of those. Second, there's also the shorter-term factors. This year in particular, emerging markets have been a bit laggard. But, because of special factors, that could reverse quite soon. Why have emerging markets under-performed so far this year? For three reasons. First, in the fourth quarter of last year, emerging markets had a very strong run, so we think this year's underperformance is partly a payback for that. Second, higher than expected inflation has picked up in some emerging markets, and probably earlier than we expected. That's also a bit of a constraint. And third, for markets like Korea, which has playe...