The Next Asia: banker’s book doesn’t add up

Stephen Roach was one of the big shots on Wall Street for decades before moving to Hong Kong to head investment bank Morgan Stanley’s Asian operations. Lauded as a “thought leader” in the finance world, Roach’s book The Next Asia demonstrates how little thought it takes to win that accolade. Roach doesn’t have much to say about Asia that you haven’t heard before, but the book is instructive as an illustration of the arrogance that crashed the global economy and believes those same bankers deserve seven figure bonuses so they can try again.

Totally globalized native New Yorker and former broadcast news producer Muhammad Cohen is author of Hong Kong On Air, a novel set in his adopted hometown during the 1997 handover about television news, love, betrayal, financial crisis, and cheap lingerie.

Poorly Made in China

For my novel Hong Kong On Air, I researched contract manufacturing in China; Paul Midler literally wrote the book on the subject. Asia Times just ran my review of Midler’s Poorly Made in China, a behind the scenes look at doing business with Chinese factories. It’s a rip-roaring read – my wife has no interest in the subject but couldn’t put it down – telling a fascinating, frightening story about the products we trust for our homes and families, where those products come from, and about the people standing, or more accurately, hiding behind them. Midler offers a unique perspective on the world’s most important emerging economy and its growing power and influence.

Totally globalized native New Yorker and former broadcast news producer Muhammad Cohen is author of Hong Kong On Air, a novel set in his adopted hometown during the 1997 handover about television news, love, betrayal, financial crisis, and cheap lingerie.