But hope springs eternal, perhaps for the naysayers of market socialism, aka local state capitalism.
With guanxi relationships blossoming like bamboo shoots after a spring rain, and young men's fancy, perhaps they cannot be blamed.
A national, potentially regional or global, system of market economy based on particularity and schmooze is definitely a challenge to the armchair stock traders who sit in lower manhatten, scoff at labor (and marx), and eat packets of mustard as subsistence.
My contribution: a cartoon from China Securities Journal (CSJ), January 10, 2009, page one (A1):
The cannon, looking lonesome, has a tag around its neck reading:
"Value Investment"
"价值投资"
"价值投资"
The man with a cigarette in his mouth, and a tag on his sleeve reading "fund" or "基金", brandishes his sword while viewing a stock market index fluctuating up and down, wildly, stating:
And underwater my stocks continue to be.
"This year calls for short-term soldiers, with some daily fluctuation buy-sell activity!"
"今年就得短兵,相接做波段!"
"今年就得短兵,相接做波段!"
And underwater my stocks continue to be.