Fuxi’s wisdom and spirit - another beacon for Hong Kong’s future
Flexibility, integration, and creation may also be Fuxi’s hope for the descendants of the dragon and the key to Hong Kong’s future.
Author: GUDORDI | 2023-12-19
What level of financial culture can Hong Kong produce, and can it be enough to compete with the London financial culture of more than 300 years? They even complement each other and form a more powerful force. (Asian News Agency)
Fuxi took the body of a python, the head of a crocodile, the horns of a stag, the eyes of a tiger, the scales of a red carp, the legs of a monitor lizard, the claws of a goshawk, the tail of a white shark, and the baleen of a fin whale to create the totem of the Chinese nation. dragon. This is where the descendants of the dragon come from.
──The legend about the origin of the Chinese national totem “dragon”
In the last chapter, the author mentioned that the sudden outbreak of World War I and its sequelae disrupted the original evolutionary order and pace of the global financial and monetary system and capital market. Over the past hundred years, both evolved in quite special circumstances and caused many problems. In terms of the capital market, this is reflected in the low overall satisfaction of enterprises, individuals and governments, and even the emergence of intermediary interests overriding these three entities, as well as the casino capitalism problem pointed out by Keynes.
The global capital market tends to become more stormy and vortex-like
Looking at a deeper level, we can view the 1944 Bretton Woods Agreement (Keynes was one of the key figures) as an attempt to put the global financial and economic system back on track, and the spirit of the entire agreement is to guide the global economy. To move towards balance and diversity, and use all the efforts of the United States to promote related development. Looking back, we can say that in terms of trade, the Bretton Woods Agreement was generally successful. Under the framework of the WTO, the post-war global trade volume has indeed continued to rise significantly. Many places, including Germany, Japan, the Four Asian Tigers, and China after 1978, have escaped poverty through trade and the U.S. market. , embarked on the road of economic development.
It is a pity that the global trade has become more balanced and diversified, and that backward countries have a path to develop, but this situation has not appeared in the global capital market. On the contrary, the development of the global capital market seems to be trending towards “wind eye” and “whirlpool”.
Basically, the current flow of global capital is tilted towards the core of the United States, and the United States has always been the world’s largest capital allocation center. When capital flows out of the United States, the places favored by the capital can benefit significantly. But once capital returns to the core, it will cause great financial turmoil in many places. The direction of American capital will only consider its own situation. Therefore, from many different perspectives, the current global financial and monetary system has many hidden worries and instability. We can draw lessons from the past, such as the 2008 global financial tsunami and countless financial and currency crises around the world in the past few decades.
The author believes that the current global capital flow is tilted towards the United States. (Shutterstock)
Does the market have the ability to correct itself and move towards diversification?
This leads to a question: Does the global capital market have the ability to correct itself and move towards balance and diversity like the global trading system under the WTO system? Assuming that this force emerges, does Hong Kong have a role to play in this process?
This is a very deep question. Regarding the first question, the author believes that the answer depends on whether another force can emerge in the global capital market that can balance the currently dominant Wall Street financial culture. This is quite difficult. However, if this force can finally emerge, I believe it will rely on London’s financial strength. London has a financial culture of at least 300 years. Before Wall Street became the global financial hegemon, London had been the global financial hegemon for more than 200 years. , therefore, only through London’s financial culture and strength can it be possible to bring a force that can balance the current trend of global capital markets becoming turbulent and whirlpool.
There is no doubt that today’s London has a lot of influence from Wall Street’s financial culture, but I believe that London’s financial culture of the past hundreds of years has not completely disappeared. It is worth noting that there was no major global financial crisis in the more than 200 years before World War I. We have reason to believe that the focus of London’s financial culture will be to pay more attention to the situation of the entire system and to balance the interests of all parties. For the global financial system, if the traditional London financial culture can have greater room to operate, it should be a healthier force.
Today’s London has a lot of influence from Wall Street’s financial culture, but I believe that London’s financial culture of the past hundreds of years has not completely disappeared. (Shutterstock)
What level of financial culture can Hong Kong produce?
As for the second question, the answer depends very much on what level of financial culture Hong Kong can produce, and whether it can spark sparks with the London financial culture of more than 300 years, or even complement each other to form a more powerful force. Considering the historical, legal and various connections between Hong Kong and London, if Hong Kong can provide assistance to London, the chance of establishment should be quite high.
However, if Hong Kong’s role is always just a support role, her future will have an upper limit. JP Morgan, the godfather of the American financial industry, said it well: “Finance is based on trust” (Finance is based on trust, see the article ” Legend of the Financial Industry──Mr. JP Morgan ” in this column). The essence of the ideal capital market, That is, companies around the world that need capital trust that they can be treated fairly and fairly in that market, so that their business achievements and future can be fairly evaluated by knowledgeable people, and they can compete fairly with the highest-quality companies in the industry. , and thus can find the capital they need for development under the most suitable conditions.
On the other hand, there are many different types of companies on the market for capital providers to compare and choose from, so as to find the most suitable investment objects and products, forming a virtuous cycle. Theoretically, a financial center that has reached this level can create its own path, and when the general environment cooperates, it can develop very quickly; even if the environment is unfavorable, it can still have the conditions to wait for the environment to change. A financial center of this level is extremely special and rare. It cannot be built based on the Spontaneous Order that Hayek refers to, and it is difficult to completely replace it.
From this perspective, the key question is whether Hong Kong can cultivate a high-quality financial culture, giving it the opportunity to bring together other forces in the market, thereby bringing a more balanced and healthy force to the global capital market? This is a deeper problem. Hong Kong probably does not currently have the capability in this regard, but judging from its history of facing crises in the past and the resources it still has, the chance is certainly not zero. Everything depends on how this generation of Hong Kong people and the forces that care about Hong Kong view and respond to the current challenges. On this issue, the author believes that there are three main lights. In addition to the two mentioned earlier, the third and most important one is the wisdom and spirit of Fuxi mentioned at the beginning of this article.
The crux of the matter is whether Hong Kong can foster a high-quality financial culture. (Asian News Agency)
Flexibility, integration, creation
What exactly is the essence of Chinese culture? This is a very deep and complex issue. The author here puts forward a bold hypothesis, that is, Fuxi’s wisdom and spirit are the essence of Chinese culture. The author believes that this is at least one of the angles that can be considered. We can at least say that the “Book of Changes” and the Yin and Yang Bagua are inextricably related to Chinese culture, and the “Book of Changes” and the Yin and Yang Bagua are both created by Fuxi. of.
On the other hand, the legend quoted at the beginning of this article explains that the dragon, the totem of the Chinese nation, may have been created by Fuxi by combining the characteristics of nine animals. Based on my own understanding of this and the “Book of Changes”, the author boldly puts forward another hypothesis, which is that Fuxi’s wisdom and spirit can be summarized by the following six words-flexibility, integration, and creation. This may also be Fuxi’s hope for the descendants of the dragon and the key to Hong Kong’s future. The author summarizes this series of articles about Hong Kong legends in these 6 words.
“Hong Kong’s Legendary Future” Series 46
Contact the author: Gudordi@proton.me
