MonitorYou can't hold back a tide of liquidity with just one finger
Measures announced by CY Leung to hold back rising property prices are about as realistic as the little Dutch boy holding back the North Sea
Do you remember the story about the little Dutch boy who stuck his finger in the dyke?
If you don't, it goes something like this: a little Dutch boy was walking along one day by the dyke, the earthen wall that protects the low-lying country of Holland from the North Sea.
As he walked along, he noticed water spurting through a hole in the dyke. Quick as a flash, he plugged the leak with the only thing he had to hand: his finger.
And there he stayed all through the cold night, bravely stopping the hole with his finger. Only in the morning was he found at last by the villagers, who repaired the dyke and hailed the little Dutch boy as a hero for saving Holland from inundation by the North Sea.
I never believed a word of it. Anyone with half a brain would have run for their lives. Sticking a finger in the hole would only have enlarged it. If he had tried, our little Dutch boy would have been engulfed by a cascade of seawater and mud.
CY Leung reminds me of that little Dutch boy. Last week his administration announced 10 measures intended to hold down rising property prices. They are likely to be as effective in containing the tide of liquidity washing around Hong Kong's market as the Dutch boy's finger would have been.