The new KMT news site (www.kmtnews.net), created to counter the "biases" of the world media, promises to be loads of fun. Runsun over at Aztec Passage has already pounced on some re-interpretations of reality there....Knowing that twisting the fact is not something new in KMT culture, I am curious to see how "their" recent poll results would say. It didn't take me too long before I spot a twisting fact on their site. On the second poll I checked, regarding an identity poll conducted by Eva TV, on July 19, 2007, KNN puts up a link to a Word file containing the poll results.
Read the whole post -- it's quite entertaining. Does the KMT really think that no one in the outside world is capable of reading critically?
I think the new website is wonderful, frankly. For years I was toying with the idea of regularly translating the writing in the Blue media, especially the editorials, so that everyone in the Anglais world could see how totally out of hand they are. Now the KMT is doing it for me! Consider this excerpt from a UDN editorial entitled: Frank Beware: You’re Starting to Sound Like a Nazi:
Hsieh’s plan for the presidential campaign -- inciting communal strifes now, switching to the language of reconciliation and coexistence after the election -- is simply Nazism in action. Moreover, this kind of political game plan of a politician -- who thinks that he is very smart -- has made him unbefitting to the vision and height of a presidency.
Since Frank Hsieh opposes “Taiwan independence,” what is left in his political thesis is a discourse of “communal conflict” that has a smack of Nazism.
You can't make up stuff like this. Or this one in which UDN hacks on Chen Shui-bian for being an economic and psychological genius:
Second, swing voters: Chen Shui-bian has been busy manipulating real estate and stock prices, and buying votes through political patronage, creating a bubble economy in which the economic fundamentals have not improved, but in which media-generated excitement may influence voter behavior. Therefore when Chen Shui-bian attempts to win over swing voters, he need not to stress ideology, he need only present the illusion of prosperity. By contrast, Ma Ying-jeou may hope to pick up a handful of undecided votes by showcasing his "deference to Lee Teng-hiu" and by jumping on the "join the UN" bandwagon, but he will still have to overcome Chen Shui-bian's "entitlement of the week" offensive.
Does anyone really imagine that Chen Shui-bian has the power to arrange stock and real estate prices? As this week has soundly demonstrated, the answer to that question is "no." Yet that is the kind of conspiratorial thinking that passes for analysis on the Blue side.
[Taiwan]
This is more than twisting the facts. This is living in a parallel universe. But, of course, it's coming from the same people who gave us President Chen's nefarious plot to win election by shooting himself.
ReplyDeleteSome things are beyond parody. Hilarious! Thanks.
When the economy is bad, it must be due to Chen's incompetence. When the economy is good, it must be one of Chen's tricks.
ReplyDeleteI am shocked, shocked that anyone finds KNN hilarious. Why, it's downright educational.
ReplyDeleteTake this news story, for example:
http://tinyurl.com/2up4va
I learned so much about the 2008 election that I didn't know. For one thing, I learned Ma is running against Chen. For another, I learned that Ma needs to court more Deep Blue votes, because that's how you win national elections in Taiwan.
Why haven't the other news agencies been reporting these things? I mean, who knew?
Does anyone really imagine that Chen Shui-bian has the power to arrange stock and real estate prices? As this week has soundly demonstrated, the answer to that question is "no." Yet that is the kind of conspiratorial thinking that passes for analysis on the Blue side.
ReplyDeleteAre you being serious? Governments setting (or allowing) low interest rates makes money 'cheap' to borrow. Cheap money leads to asset inflation as people (quite sensibly) borrow money at low rates of return and use it to obtain higher rates of return on other assets.
As more people acquire these assets though, prices rise, and rates of return on those assets drop until they move into line with returns available on cash. Hence a medium-to-long-term rise in stockmarket prices, house prices, resource prices, and (I will bet you though I have never seen the data) long-term government and company bond prices.
There's some other factors at play too, such as the fact that risky assets are being priced as riskfree since it's been a good while since we saw some fun on the markets. But I'd argue that complacency should always come eventually with practically unlimited, stupid amounts of money available at low cost.
Now, low interest rates are a very clumsy yet effective tool. You couldn't easily move prices 5% in one direction on a given day for example without a very obvious shift in rates.
But the aggregate actions of millions of people (sensibly!) exploiting those rates will have a gigantic effect in the space of months and years. Why else would house prices have been going up so much, do you think? The replacement rate (birthrate) in Taiwan is decreasing; wage inflation is low to non-existant. Maybe it's all those long-term immigrants who love the fresh air of Taipei? =)
As you make money worthless; the price of all assets, measured in money, must go up.
You are welcome to disagree with me. But I think if you watch Taiwan's economy (or any other reasonably developed economy) over the next 20 years you should see that large interest rate changes (up or down) provide a very useful leading indicator for asset prices.
As for recent worldwide stockmarket fluctuations. Well, so far we have seen nothing much there. The real fun is in the credit markets.
Heck, as far as stockmarkets go... why even get out of bed for less than a 10% drop? =)
Mu
Mu,
ReplyDeleteWhat is the mechanism for setting interest rates in Taiwan? Are they set by Chen Shui-bian?
Are we in a bubble economy?
I can think of several reasons why we might be in a period of rising housing prices, most simply because the data are aggregate and the hot luxury end of the market is pulling up the numbers. Another is ratchet effects from land taxes, which are fixed rather than a percentage of the sale.
But it's pretty obvious that Chen hasn't waved any wands over the economy. And we're certainly not in a bubble as the article claims.
Michael
There's some other factors at play too, such as the fact that risky assets are being priced as riskfree since it's been a good while since we saw some fun on the markets.
ReplyDeleteThis reminds me why some AAA rated bond holders asking why their bond drop like a C grade bond. That's becuase they are C grade in reality. D'oh!
Are we in a bubble economy?
I don't know about Taiwan's finacial in that much detail. However, US is definitely in a bubble and the bubble just bursted. Last time all three central banks, US, Euro, and Japan, pumped fund into the system was right after 911. And last week's combine amount are already greater than 50% more than the last time. Do you think Taiwan can escape the crash? Maybe she can!
Outrageous!
ReplyDeleteGuys, I lost a bunch of comments here. If you could repost, I'd be greatful -- 2 from Mu, and one in response. Sorry, man.
ReplyDeleteTrace, I cannot accept comments that contain blanket insults. I've already been threatened with lawsuits for comments that have appeared on this blog. You're welcome to post comments, but please refrain from insults -- references to racism or accusations of crime and similar. Many of those might be actionable under Taiwan's current libel laws.
Michael
i'm not even politically minded and i can clearly see that the new site is a joke. it might even help the opposition because it seems to be nothing more than one huge blog complaining about the DPP but not giving anything of substance as an alternative.
ReplyDelete