Purpose: Learning often requires little or no expenditure in income; its real cost is that it takes time. The paper aims to discuss this issue. Design/methodology/approach: Since time is scarce, most people normally decide not to learn about many aspects of modern life, but rather to specialise...

The second half of August 1998 was dominated by two events. From 14 to 28 August, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) intervened in Hong Kong equity markets to prevent a speculative double play against their currency board. On 17 August, Russia announced its default on sovereign bonds. This...

The Economics of Seasonal Cycles by Jeffrey A. Miron. Pp. xviii+225. Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press, 1996. ($US30.00 cloth) WEB INFORMATION: http://mitpress.mit.edu/book-home.tcl?isbn=O262133237.

Despite recent reforms to China's financial system, there remain numerous shortcomings. The asset quality of state-owned banks continues to be unsatisfactory, with taxpayers and depositors subsidising both SOBs and SOEs. Banks' loan margins and capital adequacy remain too low. The capital market...