Chan, Paul Mo Po 陳茂波

The CE's office initially declined to send us his speech, calling it a "closed-door event", but relented after we cited the Code on Access to Information. So we hereby publish it. After all, the SFC is a statutory body that is supposed to promote transparency.

According to Paul Chan's budget speech, at undisclosed taxpayer expense, HK is supposed to produce a machine 3 times more powerful than the world's current fastest, within 2 years, and without using the best chips which were banned by the USA from export to HK following imposition of the National Security Law on HK.

It's not too late for the Government to return to fiscal sanity with a simple Rates system rather than practice the populist politics of petty envy.

It's rather hard to spot a connection with HK's finances, but whatever.

A Financial Inspector has not been appointed in HK since last century, before the SFC gained new powers under the SFO in 2003. Now, Financial Secretary Paul Chan, who will neither confirm nor deny plans to run for CE, is throwing this redundant tool at Next Digital.

Well, not all tycoons, only larger ones.

The so-called "Consumption Voucher" will probably become another cash handout, a total of HK$108bn over 2 years - but that's not the point. HK's budget has long since deviated from the Basic Law requirement to keep the budget in line with Gross Domestic Product over time, having expanded by over a quarter since the 1997 Handover. HK is becoming a tax-and-spend interventionist economy, departing from the free-market principles at the root of its success.

This "Dear Ashley" letter was circulated to intermediaries by the SFC on Friday night but doesn't appear on its website, so now it appears on ours. Good to know that we remain free to opine that the mainland's centrally-planned, authoritarian, state-owned economy is unsustainable and will eventually change to a democratic, open, free-market economy and society to deliver the growth that its citizens expect.

An economically illiterate leadership has decided to spray HK$80bn at HK's economy, benefitting employers who had no intention of making lay-offs, by paying the firms up to HK$54k per job. Some firms have even prospered during COVID-19. It's a wasteful way to return hoarded reserves to the economy, but all companies now have a legal duty to shareholders to eat this free lunch. They should resist any Government pressure to not collect it.

Also discussing the economy, school closures in HK while Singapore's remain open, the HK$10k per voter handout ahead of the September LegCo elections, and the budget to promote the rule of law ahead of the proposed National Anthem Ordinance.

A retrial is ordered.

Shortly before Christmas, the HK Financial Secretary announced the birth of the first Belt and Road bond in HK, the latest in a line of financial gimmicks designed to avoid meaningful regulatory reforms.

The plaintiffs are granted leave to appeal to the Court of Final Appeal, to be heard on 6-7 March 2018.