To fix or not to fix, that is the question. Or maybe it's the monetary system itself that needs a fix.
These are the messages contained in a 34-page paper by Joseph Yam Chi-kwong, on the Hong Kong dollar's peg to the US dollar. (I have seen so many news reports mentioning a 27-page paper that I cannot help wondering how many of those reporters actually read Yam's paper).
Yam, of course, had stood by the peg from 1993, when he became the first chief executive of the Monetary Authority, until he retired in 2009. He is now an adjunct professor at the Chinese University.
The peg at 7.8 to the US dollar earned Yam the dubious title of Mr7.8 for the past 30 years or so. In 1998, he used massive amounts of government funds to buy up Hong Kong equities to protect the economy from currency speculators like George Soros, who of course is famous for 'breaking' the Bank of England.
So when Mr 7.8 says 7.8 is no good, we'd better listen. After all, he is the man with the credentials.
