Bumpy ride
HONG KONG is the only financial centre where a run on a bank has been set off by a broken-down bus. The bus's passengers got out into pouring rain, and took shelter under the nearest awning, which was the bank's. There they were mistaken for a queue of depositors waiting to get their money out, and other depositors rushed to other branches by way of jumping the queue. This will always be an excitable place to do business, but then, it is a sign of a good marketplace that rumours spread quickly. There are now 430 banks in Hong Kong (only the City of London has more) and 600 stockbroking firms (what can they all be up to?) They sit plumb in the middle of the world's fastest-growing group of economies, whose trade is increasingly with one another. They have a lead in communications which looks unbeatable. They have everything going for them ex- cept the political risk (and the shortage of skilled people that the risk entails.) They might now say that other people have more acute political risks, from the Gulf to the Baltic. They are, for all that, left along with everybody else to guess what will follow the Chinese gerontocracy (and when) — and at the moment they are being given something of a bumpy ride.
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