(1) Peter Coy. Money is pouring out of China as rapidly as it once poured in. That's a dilemma for Xi Jinping. (in the column "Opening Remark," the first article of each issue) http://www.bloomberg.com/news/ar ... na-s-capital-flight
Quote:
(a) "With China’s growth outlook darkening and capital flowing out of the country, speculators have been betting heavily against the yuan. The People’s Bank of China effectively declared war on them in early January [buying yuan with dollar, at Hong Kong to prop it up] * * * Michael Every, head of financial markets research at Rabobank Group, called the rate spike 'murderous' and predicted that things wouldn’t end well for Chinese authorities. Central banks 'usually win a round like this, but lose in the end,' he told Bloomberg.
"China’s central bank isn’t freestyling. It takes its instructions from the government, which means President Xi Jinping. Xi has shrewdly consolidated power since his ascension in 2012, but he seems befuddled by free markets, at times allowing them to operate and at times trying to throttle them
(b) "Xi seems to realize that he paid a high price for the honor of having the Chinese yuan included, starting this October, in the International Monetary Fund’s basket of reserve currencies along with the dollar, the euro, the yen, and the British pound. To be included in the basket, China had to demonstrate that the yuan was 'freely usable.' That forced it to lower some investment barriers—enabling the capital flight now bedeviling the leadership.
amp (vt; origin: adenosine monophosphate -- not ampere): "EXCITE, ENERGIZE —often used with up <trying to amp up the crowd>; also : HEIGHTEN, INTENSIFY —often used with up <amp up the drama>" http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/amp
(e) "Steven Wei Ho 贺威, a Columbia University economist"
(f) "Judging from China’s stop-and-go policies, its leaders haven’t completely wrapped their heads around the idea that they must make a choice. They still want all three parts of the impossible trinity."
(i) stop-and-go (adj) http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/stop-and-go
(ii) wrap one's head around:
can't get your head around sth: "If you say that you can't get your head around something, you mean that you cannot understand it <I just can't get my head around these tax forms>" http://dictionary.cambridge.org/ ... our-head-around-sth
"Cash-pressed companies in construction, manufacturing, mining, and services are delaying paying their workers, which is the No 1 cause of labor strife and a likely precursor to staff reductions, says [Geoffrey] Crothall," communications director at the Hong Kong-based workers’ advocacy organization China Labour Bulletin.
"Even as the service industry grows, it’s failing to create many higher-end, better-paid jobs, like those in finance. Instead, says [Albert] Park 朴之水 [, director of the HKUST’s 香港科技大學 Institute for Emerging Market Studies; education PhD Stanford University 1996, AB Harvard 1988], it’s generating positions such as waiters, cooks, and dishwashers in restaurants.
Note: summary underneath the title in print: The number of protests doubles, and most industries are affected