Secondly, the measures announced on Monday propose to deal firmly with illegal short selling activities. The government should discuss how its proposals would work with the financial community. It is only fair. Thirdly, let us recognize a self-created problem. The government has been promoting inconsistent land and housing policies, and it failed to see that signals there impact the financial markets since a lar chunk of our stock market capitalization is related to real estate.
Market players hedge their bets.
If they see economic weakness, policy confusion or official incompetence, they usually bet against it. Hong Kong's problems right now is that the markets see all three factors present. The government should be honest and look at where it has gone wrong. And, come on, if some people holding policy-making jobs are not up to scratch, let us get the right people in those places. Hong Kong can ill afford not to have them.