The real cause of the global financial crisis: This may be a comedy clip, but it provides a more accurate analysis – in layperson’s language – of the root causes of the financial meltdown than anything you may read in the mainstream
The big ‘D’ word – that’s D for Depression – is now creeping up on the global economy. What really caused the crisis?
According to economist Nouriel Roubini, who saw all this coming a long time ago, the crisis was caused by the largest leveraged asset bubble and credit bubble in the history of humanity:
…excessive leveraging and bubbles were not limited to housing in the US but also to housing in many other countries and excessive borrowing by financial institutions and some segments of the corporate sector and of the public sector in many and different economies: a housing bubble, a mortgage bubble, an equity bubble, a bond bubble, a credit bubble, a commodity bubble, a private equity bubble, a hedge funds bubble are all now bursting at once in the biggest real sector and financial sector deleveraging since the Great Depression.
How long will the crisis last? At least two years in the US, Roubini warns, perhaps much longer:
…this will be a long and protracted U-shaped recession that may last at least two years in the US and close to two years in most of the rest of the world. And given the rising risk of a global systemic financial meltdown the probability that the outcome could become a decade long L-shaped recession – like the one experienced by Japan after the bursting of its real estate and equity bubble – cannot be ruled out.
I would sum it up by saying all this is the result of pure, unmitigated greed and deception of the highest order by the elite in financial institutions and by speculative investors.
Analyst Mike Whitney, who also predicted the financial crisis, months and months ago when other analysts were painting a more optimistic picture, warns, “The United States is headed into another Great Depression and has probably dragged the rest of the world along with it. The global financial system will look very different by the time we reach the other end of the tunnel.”
In many ways, we are looking at the failure of global capitalism especially neo-liberalism. It was folly to think that a system which encourages everyone to act in their own selfish interests in maximising profits would somehow result in the promotion of the common good. The only way it could have worked is if there had been the strictest market regulations and supervision.
But what we have seen is that greed had no limits – and the corporate elite wanted all obstacles and regulations removed. Neo-liberalists instead promoted the buzzwords of financial services “liberalisation” and “deregulation”. The result was the creation of bubbles, overleveraged financial insitutions and deception (the repackaging of dodgy loans and mortages into ‘sophisticated’ financial instruments).
Now ordinary people around the globe will have to pay for this corporate greed through government (using public funds) bailouts of these huge financial institutions and banks.
Roubini warns that unless radical measures are taken, the crisis “may lead to a market crash, global systemic financial meltdown and to a global depression”.
Urgent and immediate necessary actions that need to be done globally (with some variants across countries depending on the severity of the problem and the overall resources available to the sovereigns) include:
- another rapid round of policy rate cuts of the order of at least 150 basis points on average globally;
- a temporary blanket guarantee of all deposits while a triage between insolvent financial institutions that need to be shut down and distressed but solvent institutions that need to be partially nationalized with injections of public capital is made;
- a rapid reduction of the debt burden of insolvent households preceded by a temporary freeze on all foreclosures;
- massive and unlimited provision of liquidity to solvent financial institutions;
- public provision of credit to the solvent parts of the corporate sector to avoid a short-term debt refinancing crisis for solvent but illiquid corporations and small businesses;
- a massive direct government fiscal stimulus packages that includes public works, infrastructure spending, unemployment benefits, tax rebates to lower income households and provision of grants to strapped and crunched state and local government;
- a rapid resolution of the banking problems via triage, public recapitalisation of financial institutions and reduction of the debt burden of distressed households and borrowers;
- an agreement between lender and creditor countries running current account surpluses and borrowing and debtor countries running current account deficits to maintain an orderly financing of deficits and a recycling of the surpluses of creditors to avoid a disorderly adjustment of such imbalances.
Finance Minister Najib should pay attention to Roubini’s proposed measures, in particular his call for “massive direct government fiscal stimulus packages that includes public works, infrastructure spending, unemployment benefits, tax rebates to lower income households and provision of grants to strapped and crunched state and local government“.
Public works could include spending on affordable housing, general hospitals, public transport, and schools in rural areas. Punishing Pakatan state governments by limiting their financial allocations could hurt local economies and consumer spending – thus proving to be counter-productive to the national economy as a whole.
In Penang, for instance, the federal government should allocate funds to upgrade the ferry services and public transport on the island.
The government should also assist farmers interested in organic farming and sustainable agriculture around the country to promote food security among the local population.
I note you have a voting panel on the right as to who we want as the next PM. Please add in Raja Petra Kamarudin. Sure lots will vote for him, even surpassing Anwar as if that is going to happen. One must be in Umno to do that huh.
Okay, Ritchie, done; have also re-set the poll to zero respondent. cheers Anil
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Actually we don’t have to look overseas to find people who foresaw this way before it happened. Matthias Chang had already warned us some time back about this financial meltdown and he deserves some credit also besides the usual Mat Sallehs some of us are fond of looking up to.
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i wud favor RPK for PM anyday.
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the last i remember is when musa hitam was deputy pm that our economy is in recession,that too 2 weeks after the general elections. our govt is in denial mode.just read that malaysia is the no 1 investor in india,pakistan and vietnam.the truth.the truth.the truth is very seldom spoken.all else is spoken except the truth.in our malaysia courts many things are said by lawyers except the truth.can we run away from thetruth.truth unfolds it self and then we will scratch our heads for new directions
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The whole kit and caboodle of “economic theory” and “financial management” is about to be exposed for what they have always been – a modern-day variation of “ye olde shell game.” Once again, the world-famous designer couturiers have made off with their loot, leaving the emperor stark naked.
Money will soon be worth only the recycled tree it’s printed on.
So it’s high time our economists re-examined what constitutes WEALTH. It’s not just “liquid and fixed assets” – we have simply forgotten to factor in the human dimension of KNOW-HOW & EXPERIENCE. These forgotten qualities are what will save us all from complete ruin. And we ought to throw in a healthy dose of old-fashioned HONESTY for good measure.
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That’s an easy to understand video about the financial crisis!
Thanks Anil, I understand it more clearly now
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I understand the fear but the US House will do the politically correct thing by voting in the 700billion rescue plan soon. The is the strength of the US government when come to saving their corporate and indirectly the people (or what we call rakyat). Ours will save their a**** first than rob form the rakyat. So, just sit back and see the approval of the rescue plan.
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When BN punishes the PR ruled states, then Anwar has all the legitimate reasons to ensure that PR rules the nation. As mentioned, punishing these states will only make the country’s economic situation worse. Vindictive politics of this nature will backfire and the support of the people will be greater for the opposition. If the economy slides and continue sliding for even a year, the country is going to suffer. I see no way that the present team of politicians running the government can come to a rescue.
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I was on a short study secondment with Hewlett packard singapore some years back. Singapore was just coming out of a recession and what I learned about how HP dealth with slow demand for their products due to world-wide recession was to spent their way out of a recession. It seems contradictory but HP never fired anyone during that period. What they did was to retool, retrain, restructure and spent resources developing the human and technical resources. These are worthwhile spending that will enable HP to ride the next wave that will surely come. Giving a lot of money to civil servants to spend is really a very bad strategy. This was contrary to a Minister without Portfolio call for the nation to be more efficient in the production, to cut cost etc. This is a silly strategy in that when no one is buying no matter how efficient you can be in producing the inventory will only pile up.
The government should and must spend to keep the country afloat but it must spend in areas that will enhance the competitiveness of her people and the country. Building a lot of white elephants doesn’t really do much.
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I would vote for Lim Eng Guan to be the Deputy Prime Minister or Prime Minister. If anything happens to Anwar, Lim is the man. The people of Malaysia should stop looking at race and religion to save them from ‘political and economic disaster’. We have to be open. A Chinese Prime Minister is not going to betray the Malays or Indians. This is my bet.If he does, the people can always decide through the ballot box. The success of Chinese leaders is obvious in Singapore. We have natural resources more than Singapore has but we just don’t have capable leaders to run the country. We have leaders who just cannot walk the talk, Let’s be honest about the whole thing.
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Who caused this crisis? Simple: The Federal Reserve and Government intervention. I get extremely angry every time people praise them for ‘helping to solve the problem’ when they are the source of it!
The abandonment of the gold standard was nothing less than a fraud of the highest degree. The federal reserve in the 60′s created more US dollars than they were able to pay in gold reserves so that they could fund the Vietnam war and other welfare schemes. The closed the gold window once they noticed they have not enough gold to pay.
Greed is a naturally occurring behavior. Who doesn’t want to get more things in life? We can complain about ‘greedy’ people all the time but many a time we are greedy as well (when we have the change
).
There used to be two fundamental limits to greed: the gold standard and fear/risk of failure. (in layman terms: your paycheck and your fear).
Well we all know that the gold standard is gone, meaning the central bankers can create any amount of money out of thin air, as they please. Not only they enrich the elite, we suffer because of inflation (more money chasing limited goods==>rising prices). A truly functioning productive free capitalist market causes PRICES TO DROP, NOT RISE (savers get more purchasing power and increases standard of living). Money printing and a credit-based system is what brought us this misguided belief that “growth brings inflation”.
As for fear: What happens when the government says “we will (implicitly) guarantee (the ultra rich bankers, government link companies) that you will be bailed out no matter what? Not to mention that many of these greedy folks are tied to the government, who in turn will use taxpayer money to bail them out.
With the gold standard gone and fear taken out of the picture, we have nothing left but endless greed.
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For a layman’s grasp of the financial crisis.
Most people think of money as a ‘Token for Exchange’ but this idea actually blinds us to the host of evil greed behind this game of exchange as it is played and led by America. For a grasp of why the USA’s (and likely, the world’s) financial system is now imploding, money should be understood as nothing less than “Promises by the Financial System” but also nothing more than this. Let me explain.
When you render a service or sell a product in direct exchange, it means that you accept the other person’s promise of a specified service or product in return, to be delivered upon exchange or in the future. Of course, such direct exchanges are rare and confined to certain trades only. But if you trade for money instead, you are in fact accepting a promise made by the Bank or the Monetary Authorities that you would be able, in the future, to receive any kind of goods or services of that monetary value by passing on this promise. In the meantime, if the money earned is in physical currency, you can keep it under your pillow or ‘save’ it in the bank, the only difference to you (but not to the bank) being that the former way won’t earn you interest. (Just to jump forward a bit, with financial institutions collapsing like dominoes, just ask yourself what you are going to do with your life savings in money, stocks, bonds, insurance policies or other securities?)
If the money you earned is physical currency or a credit payable by another bank and you save or transfer it to your bank, your bank can use it to create more promises of a great many times this value to grant to its customers by way of loans. In the case of transferring bank credits, the other bank will have to shrink its loans to its customers by the same multiple of the credit value transferred out to your bank.
Conversely, if you take a loan from the bank, it gives you money (in cash or by crediting your account) which is, as said, promises of value made by the financial system and in return for the loan you pledge to pay the bank back in future money, which is just as much also promises of value made by the financial system. But your pledge itself is no more than your own promise to the bank, backed by whatever asset, if any, that you may have.
However, money is not the only form of promises of value made by the financial system. All paper or electronic records of ‘assets’ capable of being invested in but practicably backed ultimately by money (such as stocks, bonds and all kinds of derivative financial ‘products’ like swaps, options, futures, indices and insurance policy backed products) are also nothing more than mere promises of value by the financial system. Thus, the financial system is a huge and complex bubble of layers upon layers of web-like interrelated promises by financial institutions, originally resting upon the production, consumption and trade in actual goods and services but subsequently multiplying (or ballooning, in fact) as a result of the financial system’s operators and players creating and trading more and more promises of value in the form of monetary ‘assets’ (which assets I shall call “generators”) in their search for monstrous profits.
The financial institutions comprise the Monetary Authorities, the banks and all of the institutions with monetary assets as their sole or main value and whose main business is creating and trading in monetary assets or promises.
These institutions are the financial system’s operators. The players comprise not only these institutions themselves but also their investing clients, advisors, fund managers and brokers. The operators seize upon “generators” to do two things: (1) Grow the volume of these investment “generators” regardless of their ‘quality’, such as by creating a self-perpetuating loop of easy mortgage loans to borrowers with doubtful repayment capacity that push up real estate prices which in turn demand ever larger loans; and (2) Bundle these sub-prime loan assets with other ‘better’ monetary assets to create new investment derivatives that would thus ‘merit’ better ratings. Inevitably, such toxic products seeped upwards through the whole financial system and markets, from the loan-making banks and institutions (Fannie Mae and Freddy Mac) through the entire US and world community of investment banks, insurance giants, pension funds, equity funds, government sovereign funds and other investors, all of whom have their fingers and pie in these ‘securities’ and the stock and bond markets. Of course, through the last decade, US sub-prime mortgages are not the only potentially unravelling “generators” that have ballooned through toxic derivatives and made billions of profits for the system’s operators and players.
Carrying such a huge toxic load of potentially worthless ‘assets’ that must keep multiplying in order to keep profits rolling and the entire financial system ticking, the whole bubble had to burst at its weakest point, which is when sub-prime mortgage promises began to default and those first of the over-extended loaning banks started to go under. Empty promises built on layers upon layers of unsustainable promises will keep imploding downwards until your money is no longer safe in any bank or securities, the banks won’t or can’t loan to businesses and thus the economic system also collapses. So the US government has no other choice but to take over these worthless promises to the tune of US$700 billion (if this is enough!) to be redeemed by the sweat of present and future generations of US tax payers, the blood of more victims of US conquests for plunder and whatever else only god knows is in store for you and me.
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The whole bunch of people running the nation economy are morons. These moronic bunch can be found in our politicians as well as the civil servants who are majority apple polishing, sycophants …
Given another hundred years Malaysia will remain status quo or degraded into s***.Even someone who is (allegedly) tainted is in the process of taking over the nation, so just ask yourself whether Malaysia deserves to be respected.
You may say anything and report everything but who cares. Just like dog barking at the mountain. Can you imagine with the world financial meltdown and expected to hurt our economy, we have a Prime Minister running away on the pretext of transition of handing over his job. We have the political party that is the backbone of the gomen, busy with their members chasing after positions that come with power, neglecting the economy.
Oh Malaysia ku!!!, whatever will be, will be…
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PJ 12th Oct 08
Candle Vigil RPK
7.30pm Arrived at main Hall of Padang with my partner. Less than 15 of us!? where are the rest? Probably we were too early. Supposed to start at 8pm. Feedback were not that encouraging. No jams on the road, everything was quiet though I saw a police van passed by.Have faith, wait..wait..wait..
8.00pm Lagi tak ada orang..Emm, never mind, we better go to the field opposite Amcorp Mall. What’s wrong? Mind still wondering, the rain? Sunday? continue walking with a new group of youngster who just join in.
8.05pm Heh Look! Theres a small group already there! About 30 of them! My, reminds me of calvary troops just arrived (our group lah)Now, the spirit shift gear. Now it makes 50 of us? OK, lets go to work. Camera, recorder!
8.15pm Wow! The group suddenly swell, How many turn up now? asked a brother. Man, can’t tell. Sea of people, probably more than 100. Its like a carnival but minus Music. It was ‘peaceful’ yet lots of movements of people. Chatting, ocassionaly some laughter from a group over here and group over there. Where’s my partner now? What the heck, he’s probably as busy as I, clicking away and video recording.
8.30pm The crowds more than 200 now. OK, who’s in charge here? I asked another fellow. “I don’t know” came the reply. So, I catch hold of some senior blogger and asked. Same respond: “Don’t know”. Interesting everybody busy lighting up candles and doing stuff on the floor. Be careful now, someone is forming some wording on the floor. Why sure, “NO 2 ISA” great. Don’t light it first, wait for the man sorry women of the hour to do the honour.Who’s that? Silly question? Marina’s coming: another fellow chip in. Fantastic.
8.45pm Heh look! Marina’s here, so is Gobind. Marina lead the way, She lights up the candle “NO 2 ISA” Gobind help out as well. Next Marina update whats going on and asked all of us to visit MT website coz she launched “MY LITTLE SCRAPBOOK” PLS VISIT THE WEBSITE? SELF EXPLANATORY. She thank everyone Far and Near for the support and urge us to continue to seek the truth for justice. Next Gobind gave some updates followed by 2 famous bloggers.
9pm YB LKS arrived! Now the crowd should be more than 250 or even 300! Was crowded. Sky Change? Fireworks tomorrow? Too noisy now , can’t hear whats going on in front.Be patient I suppose. Shortly after this, Marina’s going around more hugs, more thanks, then goodbye.
9.20pm – I gotta go coz just met a couple who arrived from Klang and volunteer to fetch us back. we left 9.30pm. The crowds were still there. As we drove passed, we honked our car, like someone else did earlier. Sound of Support and Freedom for RPK and the rakyat. Yes!!! Yeah!!!! Yeah!!!!!
Great nite, very satisfying and pls continue to uphold in prayer for RPK and family. Tomorrow, another new day.
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“would sum it up by saying all this is the result of pure, unmitigated greed and deception of the highest order by the elite in financial institutions and by speculative investors.”
or simply Speculators (George Soros and the likes), isn’t this what what Dr.Mahathir was crying foul in 1987? Only now, the world would admit what Dr.Mahathir said was true. Read Joseph Stiglitz book “Making Globalization Work” to see the failure of IMF.
And today, IMF is busy `helping’ to saviour the rich countries. I wonder, what kind of prerequistes they would asked the rich (now bankrupt)countries before the money will be channeled to them. Is this a form of global cronyism as the highest level? Bravo Dr.Mahathir. You’re by far much more intelligent than many of your conuterparts from the West.
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Karma,
And look at the Singaporean Malays, they were effectively (marginalised). That’s what chinese leadership is all about. I’m not being racist, but that’s the reality. Of course, someone will come out in defence of Singapore saying the Malays there are better-off that their counterparts in Malaysia, but to them I would say “Menang Sorak Kampung Tergadai” They are left with nothing. Would any Malays dream to be Singapore Prime Minister? Pretty soon, they will become archaic and only good for archaeological research if not anthropological research.
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DAT 4 Mon RPK’s Trial
8am – Court room all full. At least 25 more are outside court yard. This morning more new faces. T-shirts, hot items. Took a peek inside, saw RPK talking to his family and lawyers. Quite noisy inside, can’t get in.
8.30am Ppl still coming in, bright morning as sun was shining bright. Picture session as usual as if like real journalist, talk to a few fellows on last nite vigil. There were special branch ppl there last nite, but they stay clear of the crowd.
9am – What? Postpone?! NEWS: COURT WILL CONTINUE 10,11,12th of NOV 08. Yeap, because the Justice Rozina Ayob on medical leave I think.
Gobind came to confirmed its postpone. Read M’siakini to get actual details, pls. A blogger told me he expected so becuase earlier he heard something like that and he said RPK facial expression was feeling of sadness. He’ll be going back to Kemuning then. My heart felt a jolt, just thinking about it makes my eye red. Take a deep breath, its ok, God will know what to do.
9.30am – Ppl are still walking in oblivious what’s happening. well, everyone is reluctant to leave yet until RPK leaves. So, all of us waited for the familiar van to move out. We had a whittle bit more time to see the van coz it was block by another car. The van back up and there were some excitment as some were knocking against the side of the van to let RPK knows where are still with him. He’s blind folded, isn’t it? asked a lady. The crowd continue to shout Raja Petra. We are with you.Then the van stop, What happen? The driver need to go to the toilet: said someone and the crowd burst into laugther. I suppose RPK is also laughing inside.
9.40am. The van finally leave the compound much to the sadness and disappointment of not spending more time with RPK. Quickly send out sms to friends who have plans to come later. Everyone start dispersing and each remind one another on the next date: 10, 11, 12th NOV 08. We will be back!! Long live RPK, Long live Marina, Long live the True Rakyat of Malaysia. Long live Justice!!
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Rebates aren’t going to do either us or the govt much good. The govt can’t give us that much of rebates without hurting themselves.
WE need:
a) revision of tax levels/income brackets – personal relief stuck at RM8000 for yonks, whilst even our closest neighbours revise their rates annually to factor inflation
b) child relief to be doubled or tripled at least – for goodness’ sake, the prices of infant formulas and diapers have increased by leaps and bounds, to say nothing of other necessities, but not our salaries
c) allowances for day care
d) raise the tax rate for higher income brackets, especially those earning RM10,000/month – the higher the bracket, the higher the tax rate
e) removal of road tax and vehicle excise duties – the latter merely serves to line the pockets of corrupt politicians
f) complete revamp of the banking/financial institution system – how and why are vehicle HPs a mere 5 years with reducing balance in other countries? Even 2nd hand car dealers are much more reliable, customer friendly, throwing in freebies to boot
g) REMOVE the tentacles and slimy paws of the corrupt from OUR EPF money.
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Dear Denone
What I mean is let the person who can deliver lead. I have Malay friends and relatives in Singapore and they are happy to be Singaporeans. They admire their leaders who are sincere at making tiny Singapore survive. Their leaders are competent, they are accountable and transparency is their trade. They have little to condemn them. What we should learn from them is honesty and sincerity of becoming leaders. The trouble is when leaders talk about faith and race just to win votes then fail the nation, it is better for them to quit. If you cannot lead, step down. At heart should be the people who have much hope in you. If an Indian, or a Chinese or a Malay is sincere enough to lead, let him or her do so. The people want to see those who can deliver to lead and not those who can only talk and play with people’s sentiment. Political bickering and trivial accusations to topple leaders are the games here. Our leaders just don’t have the time to lead – a facet of a third-world nation.
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FEATURE: How the little people got traded into oblivion in HK
AFP, HONG KONG
Monday, Oct 13, 2008, Page 11
Retired security guard Tam Kai-biu does not like to take risks.
The 74-year-old never gambles on the horses or the lottery. When his banks tried to sell him an investment product, he would say: “Please, I don’t need any funds or stocks.”
Now he fears he may have lost the HK$2 million (US$260,000) in savings and pension money he and his wife had built up since he arrived penniless in Hong Kong from Guangzhou in 1955.
While the global financial crisis has triggered massive and unprecedented government intervention to try to shore up plummeting markets, his story is a potent indicator of how the squeeze affects ordinary people around the world far removed from once-mighty banking and investment titans.
Tam and his wife had saved the money over almost four decades from what was left after raising four sons. He worked as a wood craftsman during the day and a security guard at night, while his wife was a cleaner. “We earned the money with our own hands and we would not do anything risky with it,” he said.
In mid-August, Tam received a phone call from his long-time financial adviser at Hong Kong’s Dah Sing Bank (大新銀行).
At the time, shares in US investment bank Lehman Brothers were collapsing on concerns that the 158-year-old company could not raise enough capital to cover mortgage losses. None of this was mentioned. Instead, Tam’s adviser told him about an attractive “savings plan” offering interest of 3.8 percent, significantly higher than the 2 percent he was getting.
“He said the plan was great and that although Dah Sing was not the ‘boss’ behind it, there would be no risk at all. He advised me to transfer all my money into it,” Tam said.
Tam, who dropped out of school and is barely literate, said he had never heard of Lehman Brothers when he was sold the so-called minibonds, a complex financial instrument linked to both bonds and derivatives. Even if he had, he would not have known that the US$600 billion Wall Street giant was behind what he had signed his life savings into.
His financial adviser gave him an English-only document spelling out the nature of the “savings plan” and made no attempt to translate it for him, he said. The document contains a scribbled Chinese note on one page saying the products were “principal protected” — which Tam said was written by his financial adviser.
On another page in smaller English print, the document reads: “There is a risk that any investor may lose the value of their entire investment or part of it.”
On Sept. 15, the US bank filed for bankruptcy. Tam said his financial adviser contacted him that day and said for the first time that his money had been used to buy Lehman Brothers financial products.
Tam tried but failed to locate the adviser at the bank, but said the manager showed him the document he had signed, drew brackets around the words “Lehman Brothers” and asked him: “Here, can’t you see the name of the issuer bank yourself?” Tam said he is now having trouble sleeping and eating, and his wife is suicidal.
They are among the more than 8,000 angry Hong Kong investors who claim that various local banks mis-sold them the “mini-bonds” and other complex financial products backed by Lehmans, which are now potentially worthless. Their combined loss could be around HK$12.7 billion.
It’s not just in Hong Kong. In Singapore, about 600 investors who have lost savings rallied on Saturday, urging the city-state’s central bank to help recover their money.
Like Tam, many of those who gathered were retirees who invested their life savings in financial products linked to Lehmans and other institutions. They, too, said that they felt “cheated” and “betrayed” that the banks did not fully inform them of the risks when they were offered the products.
A spokeswoman for Dah Sing refused comment on Tam’s case. But asked why they continued to sell Lehman products despite knowing the bank was close to collapse, she said: “The rating of Lehman Brothers was still high at that time. … Its collapse happened so suddenly that it was unexpected for all of us.”
For weeks, the investors have staged protests outside the banks and clashed with police while demanding a full refund of their original investments. Hong Kong’s de facto central bank said it is investigating the banks that sold the products, while politicians have threatened class action suits.
Sitting under the trees to recover after an hour of shouting slogans and waving placards in a recent protest outside the city’s legislature, Tam said: “I will keep protesting until they give me back my money. What else can I do?”
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