TERBANG BERSAMA MDB (SIRI 74)
Hijrah ke Dubai (2)
Lesen penubuhan syarikat saya di DIFC dah selesai. Kami mula sewa sebuah ofis
kecil tak bertingkap di Emirates Tower tingkat 41. Ia berkonsep shared facilities. Oleh kerana Dubai (& dunia) di era kemajuan pesat di tahun2 2006-2008, sewa tinggi gila. Saya & Makhtar berkongsi satu meja mengadap satu sama lain (foto Makhtar dikepilkan). Untuk beroperasi di DIFC, kami kena ada alamat ofis fizikal. Mula rasa bleeding sebab jumlah sewa mahal.
Di hujung bulan Ogos 2008, berlaku krisis subprime di USA. Banyak institusi kewangan di USA tiba2 mempunyai liabiliti kewangan lebih daripada aset mereka. Semua dalam ketakutan. Pada 15 September 2008, Lehman Brothers gagal mendapat bailout dari kerajaan USA. Tanggungan mereka berbilion2. Mereka digulung. Sebuah bank besar dunia lenyap sekelip mata.
Gelombang krisis subprime di USA merebak ke seluruh dunia. (nota: subprime adalah aktiviti memberi pinjamam perumahan kepada rakyat bagi membeli rumah dengan pelbagai galakan & insentif walaupun mereka tidak mempunyai kelayakan kewangan yang kuat & kukuh). Bila berlaku kegagalan pembayaran hutang rumah, seluruh industri kewangan dari pemberi pinjaman, insurans & pengeluar bon terjerat. Dunia lemas. Ini permulaan global financial crisis (GFC)
Dubai pun terkena gelombang GFC. Banyak syarikat di Dubai & di DIFC terpaksa tutup. Ramai pekerja asing meninggalkan Dubai/UAE tanpa membayar hutang bank.
Saya tidak tahu semua ini akan berlaku beberapa minggu sebelum ini. Kalau saya tahu, saya tak jadi buka ofis di Dubai. Akibatnya, syarikat saya tidak mendapat apa2 kontrak selama 2 tahun di Dubai. Menangis air mata berdarah. Hanya dapat satu kontrak bagi satu property fund di Brisbane, Australia. Kontrak sulung.
Harga sewa di tingkat 41 turun sikit. Kami pindah ofis baru bertingkap tapi hanya muat bagi dua orang. (Foto bersama Prof. Madya Dr Zulkifli Hasan yang singgah di ofis Amanie).
Saya minta Hj Makhtar cari dua rumah sewa bagi keluarga kami. Kena dekat dengan mesjid, kedai & sekolah. Saya juga minta tolong uruskan kemasukan sekolah anak2 saya & beliau sendiri. Saya nak fokus bangunkan bisnes di tempat orang. Ahhh...payah.
MDB
lehman brothers financial crisis 在 陳奕齊 - 新一 Facebook 的最佳解答
Don’t Be Naive! Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is Standing on the Side Against Human Civilization
Peaceful world order after WWII had been established upon the philosophy worshiping multilateralism. The cultural basis supporting such multilateralism contained an imagination believing in the ultimate good of the respect for diversity.
The Rise of China and the Naivete of EU
However, as time progressed into the Post-Cold War era of the 90's, globalization in trade became the dominant trend. Following the global embrace of multilateralism and respect for diversity, it was believed that China would have been influenced by open and positive values once she had participated in this big family of global trade. Indeed, China took advantage of its role as the "world factory" and gained a huge economic leap forward. After China joined the WTO in 2000, within seventeen to eighteen years, China had grown nine-fold compared in terms of its aggregate economic volume. Furthermore, it surpassed Germany in 2005 and Japan between 2009 and 2010, becoming the second-largest economy in the world.
In particular, due to the global financial crisis derived from the subprime mortgage in 2007 and Lehman Brothers' bankruptcy in 2008 in the United States, the PIGGS countries turned into victims in Europe. China thus took advantage of this crisis to expand its power, bridging China’s role as depicted in Hu JinTao's "China's peaceful rise" to that in Xi JinPing's "China dream." Finally, China has revealed its ambition to compete for the position as a world leader and a planner of a new world order. The United States has finally, recently woken up to this nightmare of Xi, who has long intended to use China's almighty economic power to achieve his political agenda and hegemony. Unfortunately, many EU countries who consider themselves as advanced, civilized, pro-human rights and respectful to diversification, such as Germany and France, still fail, or refuse, to see the CCP regime’s true color and remain extremely naive towards it.
Repulsion towards Vulgarity, Tolerance towards Violence
Ironically, the two leading EU countries, Germany and France, prefer a dictatorial emperor, Xi, over Trump elected by the Americans with their ballots. The two countries do not shy away from showing them disgusted by Trump’s vulgar behaviors, but reluctantly show intolerance towards Xi’s cruelty and dictatorship. As a result, the EU countries develop inconceivable and mysterious stubbornness: they loudly criticize countries practicing death penalty based on their own judicial system; however, they are generous and subdued when it comes to the violence happening in HongKong where the HongKong police and Chinese GongAn basically bypass all applicable, or reasonable, laws. We should find this contrast deeply disturbing.
Seeing CCP through the eyes of Mao
In fact, these european countries and the western world are deluded by the so-called “respect for diversity.” Let’s use the wisdom of the CCP’s spiritual leader, Mao Ze Dong, as a framework to rethink this diversity concept in civilization. In his work “Correct Handling of Contradictions Between People,” published in 1957, Mao clearly classified social contradictions into “contradictions of two different natures”: “contradictions between ourselves and the enemy” and “internal contradictions among the people”. Contradictions between ourselves and the enemy are antagonistic, for example the contradictions between the exploiting and the exploited classes; but contradictions among people is non-antagonistic. Therefore, the former can not be mediated and resolved, but the latter one can be. Mao further advocated that contradictions between ourselves and the enemy should be resolved by dictatorship, but contradictions between the people should be resolved by a method of “cooperation-criticism-cooperation.” In other words, incompatible contradictions between ourselves and the enemy can only be solved by suppression, but internal contradictions can be softened by cooperation.
Civilization and CCP - Two Incompatible Conflicting Systems
It is time for us to recognize that CCP, a sovereign of authoritarianism and digital dictatorship, should not have been regarded as a representation of the diversity of human civilization. Diversity should be defined based on a founded premise, i.e., a premise confined with certain agreements and consensus, necessary and beneficial for composing diversity. In fact, the value CCP stands for is against the universally accepted values of the world, just like the “incompatible contradictions between ourselves and the enemy”, as Mao said. As long as the existence of the CCP regime continues, human civilization will continue to be persecuted. It can be seen in the current situation of Hong Kong, where China approved the new bill of national security, thereby destroying the remaining freedom guaranteed to Hong Kongers, and assigned the “secret” police gangs to enforce the so-called “justice”.
To see the contracting natures of civilization and the CCP regime, we make an analogy with food. Normally, we respect other people’s choice for food. For instance, Ann prefers rice, Bob prefers noodles, John is a meat lover, Mary only eats seafood, etc. Although those four people have different choices of what they like to eat, they respect each other’s choices of food. However, when Daniel comes over and tells the group that he prefers to eat faeces and needs to be respected for his preference, we can start to see the ridiculousness in it. At first, the four people think eating faeces is a personal choice for Daniel, and Daniel can do whatever he/she wants as long as he/she does it at his/her home. The problem rises when Daniel starts to force other people to eat faeces, while the other four people think faeces is inedible, and should never be served on a plate.
The food analogy tells us that the CCP regime is inherently against human civilization. As a reasonable human being could not categorize feces as food, we should not be tricked to believe that the authoritarian regime of China can blend in and contribute to human civilization. The CCP regime is incompatible to human civilization just like we should not consider to eat a meal with feces in it. As the master of CCP, Mao, admitted, one can never resolve the contradiction between the authoritarian regime of China and human civilization. The existence of Chinese authoritarian regime is a symbol for deprivation of human civilization. For us to maintain and preserve human civilization, Chinese authoritarian regime must be eradicated. There is no room for the coexistence of the CCP regime and human civilization.
Draw a Bottom Line to the Respect for Diversity
Therefore, among western countries, the United States have started or should start to realize that although diversity needs to be respected and tolerated, a reasonable bottom line should be drawn to such respect. Like what I have mentioned above, rice, noodles, meat, seafood and so on should be viewed as food; however, as we can all reasonably agree, feces should not be a part of the league. The United States is now acting to exclude “feces” from the democratic league and draw a bottom line for respect-worthy diversity. However, leading EU countries are still trapped in their fancy, unconditional acceptance to “respect for diversity.” Such respect is hypocritical, empty and baseless. Now, you should be able to understand why leftards in the EU would vigorously criticize death sentences executed under a legitimate judicial system but remain indifferent to the CCP regime’s merciless, relentless and oppressive killings. Namely, they simply set a wrong premise, including feces as an eligible option for “diversity.” As for those who embrace the CCP regime because of economic benefits, they do not even deserve to be viewed as EU leftards, but merely gold diggers in the EU.
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Special Thanks to our supporters in North America for translation🙏
lehman brothers financial crisis 在 浩爾譯世界 Facebook 的精選貼文
【每日國際選讀:六大災難專題報導】
No.5 #2008年金融危機
2008年金融危機衝擊全球
在這之後我們學到了什麼?
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🔥 2008:全球金融危機
🧐 The 2008-2009 financial crisis wasn’t a natural disaster, and didn’t directly kill anyone. Yet like the coronavirus, it began as an isolated shock that soon engulfed the global economy and forced policy makers to respond creatively.
2008-2009年的金融危機不是自然災害,也沒有直接導致任何人死亡。然而它就像冠狀病毒一樣,起初只對個體造成衝擊,卻很快就吞噬了全球經濟,迫使決策者以前所未有的方式作出回應。
-engulf 吞噬、吞沒
-creatively 有創意的,在這裡指「以前所未有的方式」
😯At first, the Fed lowered interest rates, and encouraged banks to borrow from its discount window. In early 2008, President Bush and Congress authorized $168 billion to send $600 checks to most individuals.
首先,聯準會降低利率,並鼓勵各大銀行從該行貼現窗口借款。2008年年初,總統小布希(George W. Bush)和美國國會批准了總額達1680億美元的經濟刺激計劃,大部分美國人可獲得一張600美元的退稅支票。
-the Fed美國聯邦儲備系統(The Federal Reserve System),簡稱為「美聯儲」,是美國的中央銀行體系。
-lower 降低
-discount window 貼現窗口,是央行向金融機構提供短期融資的貨幣政策工具,用於應對短期的流動性短缺問題。
- authorize 批准、授權
😯By March the crisis reached the core of the financial system. The Fed and Treasury bailed out Bear Stearns using emergency authority. That September, Lehman Brothers went bankrupt. Then, the Fed and Treasury bailed out Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and the insurer American International Group.
到了3月份,這場危機蔓延至美國金融體系的核心。美聯儲和財政部動用緊急救助權幫助貝爾斯登(Bear Stearns)擺脫困境;同年9月,雷曼兄弟公司(Lehman Brothers)破產;聯準會和財政部隨後救助了房利美(Fannie Mae)、房地美(Freddie Mac)和保險企業美國國際集團(American International Group)。
-Bail out 紓困、救助
✍️ Bailout (n)是一個口語化的非正式經濟學術語,由bail和out組成,意指出面拯救一個企業或國家免於破產,或防止金融危機蔓延的手段或計畫,這個詞在2008年金融海嘯以後被廣泛使用。Bailout的詞源來自「在航海中,將船隻中的積水往外舀出的行為」。
🙈After the stock market cratered, Congress approved the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program, which the Treasury used to inject funds into banks, securities markets and car companies. In early 2009, newly elected President Obama ushered through a $787 billion fiscal stimulus plan.
股市遭受重創後,國會批准了總額7000億美元的「不良資產救助計劃」(Troubled Asset Relief Program)。財政部透過該計劃向銀行、證券市場和汽車企業注入資金。2009年初,新當選的歐巴馬(Barack Obama)總統主導下完成了一項金額達7870億美元的財政刺激計劃。
-crater 名詞指(因外力撞擊而造成的)坑洞;當動詞時有「造成坑洞」之意,引申為「造成極大破壞、重創」
-securities markets 證券市場
-usher 主導、引導
-fiscal stimulus plan 財政刺激計畫
-fiscal 財政的(通常與國家經濟、稅務、債務相關)
未完待續...
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❓Quiz: It also left _______ with a reservoir of _______ that they are now resurrecting.
這場金融危機還替如今的決策者留下了大量重振經濟的工具和策略。
🙋🏻♀🙋🏼♀
A. trouble makers/ trial and error
B. policy makers/ tools and tactics
C. coffee makers/ cream and sugar
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