for 13 % of the issue and is guaranteed by the hkmc. class a has been assigned a triple - a rating by both moody's and s & p's. the award of this top rating to class a reflects the good credit quality of the underlying mortgage pool and the credit enhancement through subordination provided by class b, which absorbs the first loss in the mortgage pool. the low level of subordination at 13 % reflects the high quality of the collateral, the innovative structuring of the issue and market's confidence in the hkmc's ability to manage the credit risk of the mortgage portfolio. while there have been other un - guaranteed mbs transactions in hong kong, today's issue sponsored by the hkmc is the largest un - guaranteed hong kong dollar mbs in hong kong. moreover, it is the first - ever un - guaranteed hong kong dollar mbs that carries a triple - a rating. i believe that the hkmc's introduction of triple - a - rated mbs through credit tranching will become a benchmark for other mbs issuers in hong kong. with today's mbs issue, the hkmc now accounts for about a quarter of the total securitisation transactions in hong kong in the past ten years and is the largest issuer of asset - backed securities in hong kong. for the future, the corporation has plans to expand the scope of its business to cover non - mortgage assets and selected overseas markets a€ “ as always, in a prudent commercial manner. these new business initiatives will help to further broaden the local debt market, and strengthen hong kong's role as an international financial centre and funding hub in the region. we are grateful for the enthusiastic response of the banks joining the management group for this issue and find it very encouraging. we are also very pleased to learn that a diverse group of investors including retirement funds, insurance companies, banks and other institutional investors have shown a keen interest in the issue. let me conclude by thanking hsbc, the sole arranger and lead manager, for their highly professional work to make this issue a great success. i would also like to thank the co - lead managers, dz bank ag, hong kong branch, icbc ( asia ) and bmo capital markets corp and co - managers, anz investment bank and commonwealth bank of australia, for managing and distributing the issue. i look forward to your continuing support of our corporation and its debt iss

mr. greenspan examines the process by which former centrally planned economies are embracing free markets remarks by the chairman of the board of governors of the us federal reserve system, mr. alan greenspan, at the woodrow wilson award dinner of the woodrow wilson international center for scholars in new york on 10 / 6 / 97. on november 9, 1989, the berlin wall came down, symbolizing the end of an experiment in economic and social policy that began more than four decades earlier with the division of the states of western and central europe into market economies and those governed by state central planning. at the end of world war ii, as winston churchill put it, “ from stettin in the baltic to trieste in the adriatic an iron curtain... descended across the continent. ” aside from the soviet union itself, the economies on the soviet side of the “ curtain ” had been, in the prewar period, similar to the market - based economies on the western side. over four decades both types of economies developed with limited interaction across the dividing line. it was as close to a controlled experiment in the viability of economic systems as could ever be implemented. the results, unequivocally in favor of market economies, have had far - reaching consequences. the long - standing debate between the virtues of economies organized around free markets and those governed by centrally planned socialism is essentially at an end. to be sure, there are still a few who still support the old fashioned socialism - - but for the vast majority of professed socialists it is now a highly diluted socialism, an amalgam of social equity and the efficiency of the market, often called market socialism. the verdict on rigid central planning has been rendered, and it is generally appreciated to have been unequivocally negative. over the last seven years, with the soviet bloc books now open, we of course have learned much about how communist economics worked, or, more to the point, did not. but the biggest surprise is what the aftermath of the four - decade experiment has been teaching us about how and why our own western economies and societies function, or, perhaps more exactly, refreshing our own long - dormant memories of the process. economists have had considerable experience this century in observing how market economies converted to centrally planned ones but until recently have had virtually no exposure in the opposite direction. ironically, in aiding in the process of implementing the latter, we are being forced to more fully understand the roots of our own system. much