Author Archive | Andrew West

?Originally published in Capitalism Magazine on 17 September 2001.? “That particular sense of sacred rapture men say they experience in contemplating nature- I’ve never received it from nature, only from. Buildings, Skyscrapers. I would give the greatest sunset in the world for one sight of New York’s skyline. The shapes and the thought that made [...]

The constitutional protection of property in China is a continuation of reforms I’ve observed following China’s investment environment over the past ten years. Currently, the Chinese economy is a mixture of heavily regulated or government controlled industries, and segments of near anarchy, with competing government factions. For over a decade China has set aside areas [...]

I’m in favor of war on Iraq because I don’t want to be killed by terrorists who get access to weapons it’s trying to develop. The World Trade Center attack dramatically alerted Americans to the fact that there are some people in the world who want us dead. I was already aware of this before [...]

Following the Enron scandal, there have been widespread calls for more government regulation of accounting and financial markets. I take the opposite position and suggest that it has been exactly an increase in rules and regulations that brought us to Enron and other cases of faulty accounting in recent years. I think that the real [...]

Nearly half a century ago the popular economist John Maynard Keynes wrote, “Practical men, who believe themselves to be quite exempt from intellectual influences, are usually the slaves of some defunct economist. Madmen in authority, who hear voices in the air, are distilling their frenzy from some academic scribbler of a few years back.” When [...]

Over the past couple of years, events like the Internet and more recently, the Enron and Global Crossing debacles, have spurred people to reconsider the Efficient Markets Hypothesis, “EMH.” For those unfamiliar with EMH, here’s a brief textbook definition: prices of securities fully reflect available information. Investors should expect to obtain an equilibrium rate of [...]

Over the last couple of weeks I’ve seen financiers and economists give a lot of misguided advice about what people need to do to help the nation and themselves overcome the terrorist attacks on America. I’m a very patriotic person myself, I don’t just wave flags on Independence Day, I actually read and understand the [...]

“That particular sense of sacred rapture men say they experience in contemplating nature- I’ve never received it from nature, only from. Buildings, Skyscrapers. I would give the greatest sunset in the world for one sight of New York’s skyline. The shapes and the thought that made them. The sky over New York and the will [...]

In the past few months, I’ve noticed a disturbing shift in attitude towards currency devaluation. An increasing number of economists and journalists are making comments approving currency devaluation as a way to boost economies and “gain competitiveness.” Some analysts, like The New York Times‘ Paul Krugman, have been recommending devaluation around the world for years, [...]

One of Hong Kong’s largest, and most enduring business institutions has been laid low by a reckless brat from one of Hong Kong’s most powerful families. About a year ago, Richard Li acquired Hong Kong Telecom, and proceeded to destroy over US$20 billion of Hong Kong Telecom’s stock market value. Since its acquisition, its shares [...]