Bad press
December 7th 1998 03:16
I lived in Hong Kong for 16 years until 2007. In 1998 and 1999 I wrote a series of political, investment and social commentary articles for a quirky institutional newsletter - quirky in that it was intended to be as much contentious, offbeat and humorous as it was informative. I was working as an editor at the time, and I wrote the articles under the pseudonym Red Inque. I post them here for anyone interested in a look at life in Asia at the time, especially in Hong Kong just after its return to Chinese sovereignty.
Hung, drawn and syndicated
One must occasionally feel sorry for investment analysts. We are not referring here to the fact that they are likely to lose their jobs every cyclical downturn, nor that they feel unappreciated and misunderstood by sales people. No, we’re referring to that other predatory breed, the great opinionated, stentorian collection of human beings known as journalists.
There is in Hong Kong an economist of the senior and experienced variety who made a call a while back that the Hong Kong dollar peg would go. He was not alone in this call, but he was pretty much alone in nominating that the peg would go by a certain, not-too-distant date. This is sticking out one’s neck a very long way indeed.
There is in Hong Kong a newspaper columnist of the financial variety whose brief, one assumes, is to be witty and entertaining on a daily basis. A professional journalist can spot an extended neck three time zones away. So Mr Columnist rang Mr Economist and the ensuing conversation, according to the Hong Kong grapevine, could be described as less than gracious on one end and less than grateful on the other.
The result has been a series of references to the economist’s peg call in the newspaper column, each reference ever more gleefully crowing that the pressure on the peg was easing and counting down the days until it was proven that he was wrong, wrong, wrong. To the relief of many, that day was last Friday, and perhaps we’ll hear no more of it.
Red Inque has a friend who is an economist (not the same person) who a year ago made a major call that the renminbi would be devalued. In the end, he was wrong too, and if he has not been lampooned for it, it is probably because he very rarely talks to journalists, and then only to those he trusts. This is the result of bitter experience. Indeed, there are many investment banks which have a blanket ban on their analysts talking to the press.
In a perfect world, journalists would be fair and knowledgeable arbiters and what makes it into newspapers would be an objective reflection of the credibility of investment calls and research analysis. Sometimes it even works that way. But not in the incident which finished last Friday with a final blast of ridicule on one side and a frigid silence on the other. The reputation of the economist who was merely brave enough to make a big prediction has undoubtedly been tarnished, which is unfair. Also tarnished is the reputation of journalism, which has once more proved that people in ivory towers shouldn’t throw stones.
Accuracy to a newspaper is what virtue is to a lady; but a newspaper can always print a retraction.-- Adlai Stevenson
Hung, drawn and syndicated
One must occasionally feel sorry for investment analysts. We are not referring here to the fact that they are likely to lose their jobs every cyclical downturn, nor that they feel unappreciated and misunderstood by sales people. No, we’re referring to that other predatory breed, the great opinionated, stentorian collection of human beings known as journalists.
There is in Hong Kong an economist of the senior and experienced variety who made a call a while back that the Hong Kong dollar peg would go. He was not alone in this call, but he was pretty much alone in nominating that the peg would go by a certain, not-too-distant date. This is sticking out one’s neck a very long way indeed.
There is in Hong Kong a newspaper columnist of the financial variety whose brief, one assumes, is to be witty and entertaining on a daily basis. A professional journalist can spot an extended neck three time zones away. So Mr Columnist rang Mr Economist and the ensuing conversation, according to the Hong Kong grapevine, could be described as less than gracious on one end and less than grateful on the other.
The result has been a series of references to the economist’s peg call in the newspaper column, each reference ever more gleefully crowing that the pressure on the peg was easing and counting down the days until it was proven that he was wrong, wrong, wrong. To the relief of many, that day was last Friday, and perhaps we’ll hear no more of it.
Red Inque has a friend who is an economist (not the same person) who a year ago made a major call that the renminbi would be devalued. In the end, he was wrong too, and if he has not been lampooned for it, it is probably because he very rarely talks to journalists, and then only to those he trusts. This is the result of bitter experience. Indeed, there are many investment banks which have a blanket ban on their analysts talking to the press.
In a perfect world, journalists would be fair and knowledgeable arbiters and what makes it into newspapers would be an objective reflection of the credibility of investment calls and research analysis. Sometimes it even works that way. But not in the incident which finished last Friday with a final blast of ridicule on one side and a frigid silence on the other. The reputation of the economist who was merely brave enough to make a big prediction has undoubtedly been tarnished, which is unfair. Also tarnished is the reputation of journalism, which has once more proved that people in ivory towers shouldn’t throw stones.
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