Matthew Brooker

China’s refusal to condemn Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine has caused consternation in Europe and threatens to sour relations with one of its biggest trading partners. Even as Beijing portrays itself as a neutral party and potential mediator, the government has declined to join US sanctions…

You can’t buck the market, the late UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher famously said. In a different context, US heavyweight boxer Mike Tyson observed that everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth. Both were expressing variations of the same principle. Faced with an unopposable…

There was a time around two decades ago when the notion circulated that the era of the China tea-leaf reader was drawing to a close. With the nation joining the World Trade Organization in 2001 and the economy becoming more transparent and rules-based, the value of specialists who could parse the…

Hong Kong feels like it’s on the edge of a nervous breakdown, and it’s tempting to ask how much more people can take. With reports circulating that authorities will impose some form of lockdown later this month, supermarket shelves are once again being stripped bare and long lines have formed…

Rarely has a Hong Kong budget been presented in such gloomy circumstances. The city is in its coldest spell of the year, and has been sodden by several days of persistent rain. As omicron cases spiral and the health system is overwhelmed, the specter of a full-scale lockdown still hangs over a…

Omicron is no respecter of titles or jazzy labels. The Hong Kong government’s “Dynamic Zero Infection” strategy, for which the city has sacrificed much in pursuit of resumed links with mainland China, is hanging by a thread. Confirmed Covid cases surged to 614 on Monday, almost double the previous…

It has the feel of a surrealist watershed, the moment that brought home the nature of Hong Kong’s dystopian journey more vividly than any other. Perhaps we will look back one day, when this is all over, and remember where we were when they decided to kill the hamsters. The scientific basis for…

Finance research is in a difficult moment, with one influential professor estimating that half the market-beating strategies published in leading journals are duds. The academics shouldn’t be too hard on themselves. It’s only human to see patterns and construct narratives around events that are…

Some things are so predictable you could almost set your watch by them: debt ceiling standoffs on Capitol Hill, the Bitcoin bubble rising from the dead again, Manchester City winning the Premier League. Add to that list the news that China’s planned property tax has run into serious headwinds. …

Manny Pacquiao is running to be president of the Philippines. In a country obsessed with celebrity culture, the candidacy of its most famous son feels as inevitable as night following day. That’s reason enough for caution. Pacquiao, or “Pac-Man,” is rightly regarded as a hero. A lightning-quick…