International Law

There Goes the Neighborhood

By Stan

China Investment Corp, the nation’s sovereign wealth fund, is seeking to hire 30 people with global investment expertise as part of expansion plans.

The manager of China’s US$200 billion fund is recruiting for positions in equity and fixed income investment and alternative assets, up until October 5, Bloomberg News said.

Central Huijin Investment Co, the wholly-owned unit of CIC, also plans to hire directors for Agricultural Bank of China, Huijin said in a separate statement.

Thanks for the news, Shanghai Daily. That’s all we need in Beijing, a bunch of slack-jawed, shell shocked investment banker pukes hoarding all the taxis and clogging up the queues at Starbucks.

This compounds the horrifying post at CER I saw the other day:

I was in a bar with a friend last week and we got talking to a stock trader, recently arrived from the US. He was one of many casualties from the Bear Stearns meltdown and had decided to look for a job in Asia. The premise seems logical enough: If funds are flowing into Asia for lack of investment opportunities in the West, surely investment professionals will follow?

Now that Lehman Brothers has collapsed, as many as 25,000 people will join the job market - even more if you factor in the inevitable downsizing that will come with Bank of America’s acquisition of Merrill Lynch.

Damn shame, if you ask me. Maybe China could be encouraged to place a special tax on these people’s salaries, forcing them to flee to other localities. At the very least, I hope they will remain in their natural Asian habitats (i.e. Shanghai and Hong Kong).

?????

Full post as published by China Hearsay on September 23, 2008 (boomark / email).