bodyType

customContents

entityId

entityUuid

articlePageQuery

filter

article

articleBaseAdvertisingInfoArticle

articleListArticle

articleSeoArticle

helpersCheckIsPostiesArticle

hooksArticleAcknowledgementGateOverlayArticle

hooksTrackPageViewArticle

hooksContentInterestArticle

articleLinkingDataContent

articleSchemaContent

liveArticle

advertZone

sentiment

contentLock

topics

types

sections

moreOnThisArticles

urlAlias

commentCount

sponsorType

authorLocations

authors

paywallTypes

corrections

displaySlideShow

multimediaEmbed

printHeadline

seriesContainer

socialHeadline

headline

flag

firstTopic

glossary

flattenTypeIds

publishedDate

additionalInfoBoxes

images

image

relatedLinks

relatedNewsletters

__typename

createdDate

sponsor

factSheets

series

disableOffPlatformContent

published

updatedDate

summary

subHeadline

body

keywords

copyrighted

customTimezone

liveContents

SCMP Reporter

SHIPBROKERS E A Gibson decided to widen their research into the industry last month by looking at the people who look at the industry - sort of mega-shipping analysis.

  Tanker brokers , it said, know a great deal about everything.

  But over the years they end up knowing less and less about more and more until they know nothing about everything.

   Sales and purchase brokers know everything about everything and everybody.

  But they forget how much they said to whom about what, when.

  But it doesn't matter because all they ever say is: 'I've got this great deal for you,' and start charging commissions.

   Shipping analysts know a great deal about very little and they learn more and more about less and less until they know everything about nothing.

   Oil traders know nothing about anything, but find out something about everything in the process of making something out of nothing.

   Tanker owners , who actually pay the bills, start out knowing everything about everything.

  But they end up knowing nothing about anything because of the advice they get from the brokers, the analysts and the traders.

It all adds up HERE is a very special offer from the Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce - three years membership for the price of three years membership, Chris Stolba of Sha Tin excitedly told us.

  The General Chamber is making a special offer of a three year subscription rate of $11,100 for three years as opposed to the miserly normal rate of $3,700 per year, according to a letter Mr Stolba received.

   Two possibilities spring to mind. One, this is a very subtle way of letting you know the dues will be going up in 1996.

   Two, all the people who are good at sums at the Chamber are working flat out on ways to stop the government frittering away money on old people.

Holding the line MERCURY, the main competitor to Britain's former telecom monopoly BT, battled for years against BT to open markets further and remove the privatised firm's in-built advantages.

  Mercury is a subsidiary of Cable and Wireless, also the parent of HongKong Telecomm and there has been an exodus of staff from Mercury to HKT recently.

   The exodus goes back a fair way - Peter Howell-Davis was deputy chief executive at Mercury and two years ago he joined HKT in a similar role.

  But one of the more recent arrivals was Rhiannon Wheeldon who is now director of regulatory affairs for HKT.

  That job brings her into close contact with representatives from the firms which are slated to be issued with domestic telecoms licences any moment now.

  Obviously, having come from Mercury, Ms Wheeldon will be filled with sympathy for the newcomers we suggested to one new player.

  There was a very long silence before the reply came: 'She certainly understands our problems, but we haven't seen many signs of her coming up with the solutions yet.' Banking on it PANIC in Bangkok leads to 0.08 per cent depreciation - those investors are easily spooked, scoffed one local currency dealer when he spotted this report yesterday morning.

   Perhaps the writer has never seen a real panic, our informant continued.

  And a bank-run in Bangkok probably means more than two people in a queue at the cash machine. However, by the end of the afternoon, the writer was a lot closer to being experienced than in the morning (see other pages) and Lai See has a suspicion that banks around the region, both central and trading, are currently ordering brown trousers for all staff.

Warm feeling WHILE Monetary Authority supremo Joseph Yam is going eyeball to eyeball with the speculators who have been stalking dollar block currencies in the region, Dr Doom aka Marc Faber, Ian Perkin of the Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce, and John Mulcahy of UBS Securities will be doing something similar at the annual 'Which way the dollar?' debate.

 And with speculators in the market and a Friday the 13th to boot, the debate couldn't be better timed.

   The HKMA has chosen the right three economists. The remark that Lyndon Johnson made to J K Galbraith could never be applied to them.

  'Did you ever think, Ken, that making a speech on economics is a lot like urinating down your leg? It seems hot to you, but it never does to anyone else.' To the letter CHINA has released another picture of Deng Xiaoping, apparently in the hope it will reduce speculation about the ageing patriarch's health and whereabouts.

  When there is speculation about Governor Chris Patten, then his private office leaks the most recent postcard he has sent.



Gibsons all at sea on a learning curve