So it's the start of the year; January is a month when the governments and business corporations review how the past year has fared and try to gauge what is in stock for the coming year.
For big businesses, Apple seems to have been a big winner recording a handsome amount of quarterly profit (the greatest there ever is so they say) up to December with the other "Big Fours"- Google, Amazon, and Facebook- doing just well along-side. Apple is going big (quite literally with its out-of-norm gigantic iPhone 6 Plus) and up- just as its home-base country. The US economy is looking up or has turned the page (quoting the words of Obama).
Let's have a look at the bigger picture of the state of the United States; It has seen consistent positive growths, ever diminishing budget deficits, finally pulled back the last combat force from Afghanistan though whether it actually has happened is debatable and quickly found themselves stepping into a new conflict in the Middle East. But the US economy has surely picked up from the slumber and grim outlook during the years of recession started in 2008, whilst Obama has scored preliminary success in his push for implementation of the Affordable Care Act, or more commonly known as the Obamacare. This all should have made it easier for the POTUS to deliver his State of the Union address on the third Tuesday of the month. It was, however, the least watched address since the year 2000: drawing only a little more than 30 million audiences (consider the population of the US standing at 316 million) either streaming or watching it from cable TV.
Still, the State of the Union address is something to look forward to. And mimicking entertainment videos, they actually made a teaser for the address:
Talking about all the positives and the sense of optimism do give you something to cheer for, although in the chamber it still is mostly the Democracts cheering for the president and the Republicans with a grumpy face only occasionally giving standing ovation when the POTUS talked about patriotic stuff which everybody feels obliged to feel positive and give salutes.
On a side note, the address was more like a celebration party than a pronouncement of the set of policies the president is trying to lay out. People are clapping, cheering, giving standing ovation, and the president taking credits for the most trivial stuff at times stretchy- you'd wonder if all politicians are a bit deluded. The lack of champagne is what makes it not a party. But I shouldn't be complaining about this, because I've seen worse here at home.
Trying to strike a note of similar positivity, Hong Kong's top officials do not have the same ground to be so optimistic. If the US senators and the president were deluded, C.Y. Leung and his underlings were knowingly lying to the public.
The European Union was troubled, not least by its neighbour motivated almost fanatically by the fickle leader Mr Vladimir Putin. Deflationary pressure across the Euro-zone has piled on so much pressure that Mario Draghi (the president of the European Central Bank) saw no other options but to succumb to the enticing quantitative easing in the footstep of America, Britain and Japan. The possible outcome of Greek default and leaving the Euro-zone (or so-called Grexit) brought to the surface by the unsettling though somewhat expected victory in the parliamentary election by the radical left party Syriza does not only encourage similar movements in Spain (propelled by Podemos, another anti-austerity party of similar style to its Greek counterparty) and Italy, but also threaten the very fabric of the Euro-zone and might just tear it apart.
Contrary to all these messes, our local clever, talented, sometimes exploiting tycoon Li Ka-shing (or better known as "superman" locally), according to Bloomberg, boldly made a wager asserting that he saw the future in Europe (implying: not Hong Kong). He followed through with his actions; the latest news of him negotiating to buy O2 possibly merges it with Three he already owns thus reducing the UK telecom industry to "Big Three"- O2 & Three, Vodafone and EE- is just one of the many acquisitions he has already made.
So what about Hong Kong? China's economy is decelerating, though they insist it is not a "hard landing". And China's grip on Hong Kong's way of life is ever tighter when the sovereignty is launching the hardest campaign against the ubiquitous graft and corruption across the country. This transition period is tough for Hong Kong, so tough indeed that many Hongkongese become disillusioned and desperately trying to cope. These days, people learn to come to terms with things however ridiculous they are (yes, I'm partly referring to the current incidents of ATV); in fact, people are starting to lie to themselves such that they do not have to live in the unbearable reality which they know is unhealthy in the long run. It's quite hard to stay all positive and optimistic in Hong Kong because it's bad, it's really bad. So when I scoff at the naivete displayed by the US congress and the fuss European countries got themselves into, I stop to remember where I am and I can't laugh no more. Because I've seen worse.
