港媒报道说，中国电商巨头阿里巴巴集团香港股票发行，面向散户投资者发行的部分，吸引了约20万名投资者申请。
据《香港经济日报》报道，按认购人数衡量，这将使阿里巴巴成为今年以来最受欢迎的上市交易。报道未说明消息来源。
不过，阿里新股热卖，散户投资者数量虽比近期另一受追捧的新股中手游的9万人多出逾一倍，却少于平安好医生和阅文集团的首次公开募股交易。
《明报》说，腾讯旗下阅文集团2017年上市时适逢新经济股热潮，获逾40万人认购，并创下冻资逾5200亿港元（907亿新元）历来次高纪录。同年上市的汽车交易平台易鑫集团及游戏装置公司雷蛇也都比现在的阿里更受欢迎，前者认购人数达30万。不过从去年起，散户热情似减退，较热卖的仅有去年5月上市的平安好医生，有22万人认购。
阿里巴巴早前宣布招股价为176港元，公开发售部分超购约40倍，将于本月26日挂牌交易。
世界卫生组织（WHO）领导的一项新研究表明，全球超过八成青少年体能活动不足，女生尤甚，这将影响青少年的健康。
这项研究已发表在英国《柳叶刀·儿童与青少年健康》杂志上。研究人员追踪了全球146个国家和地区、160万名11岁至17岁在校生2001年到2016年的体能活动情况。
研究结果发现，2016年全球81%的在校青少年未达到世卫组织相关建议，即每天至少完成一小时中高强度的体能活动。如按性别区分，85%的女生和78%的男生没有“达标”。
积极开展体能活动将给青少年的身心发育带来诸多裨益，研究人员建议各国采取紧急政策行动，增加青少年的身体活动量。
研究作者之一、世卫组织专家布尔敦促各国尽快出台或改进有关法规，配置相关资源，从教育、城市规划、道路安全、运动和娱乐场地配备等多领域为青少年增加体能活动提供条件，如营造安全环境以便青少年步行或骑车上学等。
研究还显示，2001年至2016年间，男生体能活动不足比例从80%降至78%，而女生这一比例保持在85%左右。参与研究的世卫组织专家赖利说，女生不如男生活跃的趋势令人担忧，应创造更多机会满足女生的需求和兴趣，以吸引和维持她们在青春期和成年期投入体能活动。
China has outlined a five-point strategy for managing its ageing population in its first policy paper to tackle the country’s most daunting social and political challenges of the coming decades.
The paper, jointly issued by the Communist Party’s Central Committee and the State Council, acknowledged that the country faced a serious ageing problem but said China must “find its own way out, and that means taking a path with Chinese characteristics”.
The document does not give a specific estimate of China’s elderly population but China’s National Community on Ageing has estimated that, by 2050, those aged over 60 could reach 487 million, about one third of the population.
According to the paper, which was published by official news agency Xinhua on Thursday, Beijing is calling for an active response to the ageing problem with short-term, medium-term and long-term goals, to be achieved by 2022, 2035 and 2050 respectively.
Demographers have warned that direct consequences of China’s ageing population include a shrinking workforce and a weakening of the country’s economic strength.
Yi Fuxian, a researcher on China’s ageing population at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in the US, noted that the demographic shift could undermine China’s ability to compete with the US in the long term.
“In the past it has been a young China catching up with a middle-aged US, that’s why [China] has managed to close the gap between the two countries rather quickly. Now it’s going to be an old China trying to chase a middle-aged US, and the gap [between the two countries] is likely to get wider and wider. China’s ageing population can become an obstacle for the country trying to overtake the US,” he said.
Other social pressures include China’s pension shortfall as the aged population grows, and pressure on the medical system and elderly care. As a result of China’s now-scrapped one-child policy, which was first introduced in 1979 to artificially slow population growth, young people in China are now faced with caring for two parents and four grandparents, with no siblings to share the burden.
The one-child policy has also exacerbated the ageing problem with a declining fertility rate. The government abandoned the policy in 2016 to allow couples to have two children, but so far the change has proven ineffective in boosting the birth rate.
In January, the National Bureau of Statistics said the total number of births fell to 15.2 million in 2018 – or 1.6 children per woman – a drop of nearly 12 per cent nationally compared with the previous year, a number which is disputed by demographers like Yi.
He claims the Chinese government has misrepresented the actual birth rate to gloss over the ramifications of the one-child policy. According to his own calculations, the actual fertility rate averaged 1.18 children per woman between 2010 and 2018, a lower level than Japan, suggesting China’s ageing problem could be more serious than its eastern neighbour’s.
如果负债是一项奥林匹克运动的话，澳大利亚会有很多值得骄傲的东西。
数字显示，澳大利亚是全世界贷款的金牌得主。这是因为几个原因。当借钱成本低时，人们会借钱。
澳联储已降息15次，目前的现金利率仅为0.75%。
此外，政府还会对你因借钱购买投资房所遭受的任何损失减税，这就是所谓的资产负扣税。
如果这还不够，银行也成为了销售机构，就像卖二手车一样兜售信贷。
猜怎么着？这就让澳大利亚人疯狂地借钱，然后购买房地产。
经济学家杰拉德·米纳克（Gerard Minack）在接受采访时说，澳大利亚的房地产市场实际上是个纸牌屋（House of cards，指不牢固不安全）。
“我们的家庭债务与收入比几乎达到了200%，在我看来，这是一个巨大的宏观经济风险。”
为什么澳大利亚家庭会负债累累呢？
他分析说：“因为我们买了房子，而不是造新房子，只是购买已经在那儿的房子，并把它们推到了按照全球标准来讲，世界上最昂贵的房子之列。”
债务的最大问题是你必须要有能力偿还贷款。
墨尔本商学院的伊恩·哈珀（Ian Harper）教授指出如果债务无法偿还这会让经济变得脆弱。
“通常情况下，就家庭而言，这与失业和就业前景直接相关，”他说。
“的确，工资增长不是很快，但利率也处于历史低位。”
在向房地产投资者大把撒钱的同时，银行不愿意给小企业贷款，除非你把房子作为抵押。
热线供暖（Hotwaire）公司的创建人卢克·钱特（Luke Chant）进口供暖地板和加热毛巾杆。
“我们15年前在澳大利亚创办了热线供暖公司。当时，人们并不真正知道什么是地暖。”
他说他所拥有的小生意盈利情况不错。
“每年都能盈利，除了全球金融危机期间，那一年我们收支平衡，但银行却根本不会因此而贷款给我们。”
钱特的墨尔本公司必须提前支付进口产品。 可能最多要等六个月零售商卖掉那些产品后，最终才能收到钱款。他的银行过去曾帮助他弥补这一时间差带来的资金周转，但在2014年，情况发生了变化。
“一天早上，我醒来后发现银行刚刚关闭了我的贸易融资工具。”
“那时，银行决定关闭所有的无担保的金融工具，他们没有通知我们就关闭了我们的渠道。”
现如今，为了支付这些存货，该公司不得不以高利率向非银行贷款机构借款。 卢克说今年这些利息支出已超过两万澳元。
“两万澳元是半个低级行政人员的工资。如果我有更好的金融工具的话，我可以再雇一整个人。”
他认为这确实阻碍了生意的发展。
“这意味着当我可以出去销售、与客户交谈时，我却被困在办公室里做这些行政工作，我在做一些我可以花钱雇用低薪职员去做的事情。”
他说虽然每个人都知道小生意对国家经济发展的重要性，但是像他这样的小生意人却无法从银行得到公平的对待。
“ 我想告诉银行的是，你必须给小生意一个机会。”
在被问及这个问题时，联邦银行（CBA）首席执行官马特·科曼（Matt Comyn）认为该银行非常关注这两个问题。
“很明显，在建筑业和房地产开发方面，房地产业都是经济增长的重要组成部分，但生意企业也同样重要。”
“我们每周贷款约五亿澳元。我是说可以说，我们应该贷出更多的钱。 ”
这位澳大利亚最大银行的老板马特·科曼承认澳大利亚的家庭债务很高。
“我认为家庭债务非常高，你可以在国际上进行比较。不过，如果你看看其他一些因素，尤其是现在的利率，如果你看看债务的可偿还性，我们发现超过四分之三的客户提前还款。”
“因此，我们对债务的整体健康状况没有任何担忧，也不担心客户能否偿还债务。”
澳大利亚银行业皇家委员会的调查让不少人不再愿意对向大银行申请贷款。
澳大利亚千禧一代的乔尔·凯塔维尔（Joel Kaithavelil）不认为自己会向大银行贷款。
“很有可能，这不会是一家大银行。”
“我认为老一辈人可能信任银行，比我们更忠诚于银行。我们会更乐意货比三家，在需要时更换银行。”
目前，银行所面临的压力并没有任何减轻。 政府指控他们牟取暴利，并任命澳大利亚竞争和消费者委员会来调查他们没有把澳联储降息全面转给贷款者的事实。
现在银行平均抵押贷款利率和现金利率之间的差距越来越大。
有初步证据表明，银行正在保留部分现金利率下调的经济利益，但情况比这一点更复杂，因为澳大利亚央行的现金利率并不真正代表银行获得资金来提供贷款的成本。
JB Hi-Fi首席执行官理查德·默里（Richard Murray）认为，澳大利亚的经济并没有人们说的那么糟糕。
“我们的利率低，失业率低，生活水平高。我们只是不够高产。 ”
“我认为高负债水平只是当人们失业或经济受到打击时才会成为一个问题，而且，正如我在买卖房子时一直想到的，你往往在同一个市场进行买卖。”
没有多少可支配收入的平常人借贷了几倍于他们收入的房贷，如果经济突然下行，接下来会发生什么？
经济学家杰拉德·米纳克认为最好的情况是一个小小的经济修正。
“我认为我们得特别幸运才能逃脱，因为现在房价如此之高，你最好祈祷好运，希望我们在未来十年不会陷入衰退，因为这需要这么长的时间。”
“如果我们在过渡时期真的陷入衰退，哇，住房确实会是个风险，一旦开始的话，就会加剧衰退。”
最好的婚姻可能基于两人的团队合作。但似乎个人贡献的确很重要 — 具体来说，是谁赚了家庭总收入的多少份额。
我的研究表明，在异性恋夫妻中，当夫妻双方都在经济上做出贡献时，男人会更快乐，但他们更愿意成为主要的养家糊口者。
当他们是唯一赚钱养家的人时，他们的压力很大；当他们的妻子或伴侣的收入不超过家庭收入的40％时，男人似乎会更放松。
但是随着配偶的工资超过这一界限，他们的苦闷程度急剧增加。而当他们在经济上完全依赖伴侣时，他们感到的压力是最大的。
这些发现是基于15年来对6,000多对已婚或共同生活的异性恋夫妇的分析得出的。
苦闷的程度是根据感到难过、紧张、躁动、绝望、一文不值或每天的生活都是负担来计算的。
那些是家里唯一赚钱者的男人相对来说不快乐，但他们的压力不如那些伴侣是主要赚钱者的男人大。这两种极端情况都不利于男性心理健康。
唯一例外的是那些知道自己的伴侣是高收入女性的男人。
这些男人，当他们的伴侣收入更多时，似乎没有更高程度的心理苦闷。
人们不会随意选择伴侣，因此，如果女人在结婚前就是高收入者，那么对这个男人来说，潜在的收入差距已经很明显了，甚至可能是与她们成为伴侣的一个原因。
有多种原因可以解释为什么那些妻子赚得更多的丈夫可能会遭受心理困扰。
当一对夫妇中的一个人在共同收入中所占的比例更高时，可能会导致夫妻关系失衡。
例如，如果关系严重恶化，离婚或分居的可能性会使收入较少的一方感到经济上更脆弱。
在未婚同居的伴侣中，这些影响更大，可能是因为分手的可能性更高。
即使没有分手的可能，主要通过伴侣中的一方赚钱养家也会影响力量的平衡。
如果伴侣双方对什么是最适合家庭的选择、存多少钱、花钱在哪些方面以及各种计划和重大决定上持不同看法，那么谁赚钱多是很重要的。
图表：男人的压力程度是如何随着配偶的工资变化的
另一种理论涉及一直以来社会、心理和文化准则对性别角色的影响。
过去，男性赚钱养家的社会结构已经非常持久。
几代人以来，在许多文化中，人们一直期望男人会成为家庭的主要收入来源，而男性的阳刚之气与实现这一期望高度关联。
面对自己的伴侣赚得比自己多会带来的结果变化，意味着男人可能会遭受高度的心理困扰。
但是现实是情况正在变化。在诸如美国这样的地方，妻子赚得比丈夫多的人数比例正在增加。
1980年，只有13％的已婚妇女的收入和丈夫一样多或比丈夫多。到了2000年，这一数字几乎翻了一番，达到25％。而在2017年，这一数字达到了31％。
这种趋势可能会持续到未来，在其他国家也出现类似的趋势。
平均而言，在我的研究中，受访的男人表示，当伴侣的收入不超过家庭收入的40％时，他们遭受的心理困扰程度最低。
但是对于男人来说，作为唯一的赚钱养家者也可能会付出心理上的代价。即使社会性别准则支持这种情况，作为家庭中唯一的收入来源也会承担很多责任和压力，因此可能导致严重的焦虑和苦闷。
尽管对女性赚钱养家者的新兴特征及其可能的后果业界都有广泛的研究，但很少有人关注那些挑起赚钱养家重任的男性所面临的心理障碍。
缺乏研究也许显示出男性是主要赚钱养家者这一传统的力量。健康和福祉研究通常致力于研究那些新现象，而非社会上广为接受的准则规范。
性别认同准则显然仍引起人们对妻子收入超过丈夫的广泛反对。随着越来越多的女性赚得比伴侣更多，传统的男性赚钱养家的社会准则可能会开始作出调整。
Sought-after trainer collaborations like Sacai x Nike, Travis Scott x Air Jordan 1 and Kayne West’s Adidas Yeezy shoes can command five-figure sums on online resale marketplaces like Goat and StockX – here’s why
Collaboration trainers are the source of much of the resell industry’s value. Many of these trainers are hyped for months, and when they finally drop, they’re sold out in minutes. That’s where the boggling sneaker resale market comes in, bringing with it a huge jump in price. Sites like Goat and StockX bridge the gap between customers hungry to purchase streetwear fashion trends – also known as “hypebeasts” – and the scarcity of these styles. Collaboration trainers can make prices spike up by a couple hundred dollars, or by a thousand … or even more.
What’s all the hype?
The Sacai x Nike collection
This fusion between Nike and the Japanese fashion label Sacai is a prime example of this phenomenon. It features two Nike shoes fused together, for a result of “double” everything: swooshes, tongues and laces. They come in several iterations, all retailing at an original price of US$140 to US$160 on the Nike website.
Now you can now find them at places like Stadium Goods, Goat and StockX for upwards of US$300. And that’s on the low end – some of the Nike x Sacai designs appear for over US$800.
The Nike Travis Scott x Air Jordan 1
Thus collaboration was originally seen on the Nike website for US$175, but if you want to score a pair now, StockX lists them at around US$1,000. Goat, another resale industry giant, lists them at US$800 for a used pair and US$865 for a new pair. Even used, these trainers clearly have the value that only scarcity can provide.
Yeezy shoes
A collaboration between Kanye West and Adidas, Yeezy-branded shoes are another well-known example of this drastic mark-up on the resale market. The Nike Air Yeezy Zen Grey was originally listed at US$250, but its resale value is US$2,139 – nearly an 800 per cent mark-up. The Adidas Yeezy Boost 350 V2 Black Reflective originally sold for US$220 and is now available from resale stores for US$1,437. The Adidas Yeezy Boost 350 V2 Cloud White Reflective, which was released just a month ago in September 2019, originally sold for US$220, and is now being resold for US$700.
After all those 700 to 800 per cent mark-ups, a doubling in value looks almost reasonable.
More madness
There is no end to these extreme examples. A pair of Yeezy Boosts originally retailed for US$300 and were resold for US$1,239. The Nike Air Fear of God 1 Sail retailed originally for US$350, and is now available on the resale market for prices ranging from US$400 to over US$1,000.
The Bodega x New Balance 997S No Days Off trainers originally sold for US$160, but one can find them now for US$3,579 from Farfetch. The Cactus Plant Flea Market x Nike Air VaporMax 2019 originally sold for US$250, but now you can score a pair for US$594, US$705, and US$1,174, from StockX, Goat and Stadium Goods, respectively.
The reason for the huge mark-up is the limited availability of these trainers; fuelled by hype, and immediately recognisable as a status symbol, these trainers are frequently swept off the market within days if not hours. The sales of resale trainers now account for more than US$2 billion each year.
Why did you start Tove & Libra?
Christine Chow Chia-sze: “One of our goals is to help women create a more streamlined wardrobe, with items that they will wear more; dress more with less. Our styles are timeless.”
Describe your collection.
Chow: “We have tailored tuxedo pants, pieces made from 100 per cent cashmere, ribbed tees in a wool and cotton blend, jumpsuits made with Tencel. The materials are upcycled using leftover textiles from other designers’ productions. Our bestselling item is our elasticated cropped trousers, as it’s not easy to find women’s pants that fit well. They throw in all these bells and whistles, but you just want to make your bottom look good.”
What’s the advantage of using Tencel?
Chow: “It’s more sustainably produced. Cotton is fabulous to wear, but it uses a lot of water and energy. Tencel is produced in a closed-loop system. And with branded Tencel, it’s guaranteed to be made from wood pulp from sustainable forests. It’s softer and smoother than cotton as well as machine washable, easy to take care of and takes colour well.”
How did you end up working together?
Ivan Tang Shun-nien: “Our grandfathers started a clothing business in China over 50 years ago. We’re third-generation manufacturers. After studying overseas, Christine and I decided to join the family business. While working together, we shared frustrations with the industry; we wanted to create something more authentic, and sustainability was a personal issue for us. So we decided to start this brand.”
What are your roles?
Chow: “I do the design and most of the creative side. I majored in visual arts, then worked in New York for about 10 years in graphic design before joining the business.”
Tang: “I’m more on the operational side, things like the finances and logistics and setting up the shop. I studied biology but after I graduated, I wanted to do something more applicable to the real world.”
How are your clothes made?
Chow: “[The family business produces] clothes for big, international brands, who order tens and hundreds of thousands of items. There’s often leftover material so we incorporate it into our collections. China has pretty strict environmental regulations, especially in southern China. Our production processes meet or surpass international standards.”
Tang: “We design, source the materials and manufacture. Many brands try to up the standards on sustainability, but they don’t want to pay more. But that’s not sustainable, because it creates a system where everybody tries to cut corners. We don’t think fashion should be cheap because it involves so many people and processes.
Where did the name come from?
Tang: “Danish design was a source of our inspiration because it’s simple, sophisticated and has a warmth to it. So we wanted to have a name that was somewhat Danish and we came up with Tove Libra. ‘Tove’ means ‘strong woman’in Danish.”
Chow: “As a working mum, I feel clothes should be high quality, easy to care for and mix and match. So, thinking about finding that kind of equilibrium, I thought Libra sounded nice. It’s also the most fashionable sign of the zodiac.”
China has initiated a fresh crackdown on virtual currency initial coin offerings and cryptocurrency trading – which are banned in the country – in response to a surge in blockchain fever.
The governments of top tier cities, including Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen, issued risk alerts to the public, warning of “illegal fundraising”, financial frauds or pyramid selling.
They also joined hands with the national internet finance association and the computer network emergency response centre to search for local traces of activity on the ground and tried to cut off connections with offshore platforms.
The coordinated endeavours came after President Xi Jinping hailed the use of blockchain technology in late October, a move meant to push technological development and troubleshoot with new technologies but which unexpectedly fuelled investor enthusiasm for cryptocurrencies.
The price of bitcoin, the most well-known application of the technology, rose nearly 40 per cent to more than US$10,000 soon after Xi’s speech. Its value has since fallen by about 30 per cent.
The Shanghai headquarters of the People’s Bank of China said on Friday that speculation in virtual currencies was on the rise since the promotion of blockchain technology and it had “severely disrupted economic and financial order”.
“Investors must not treat virtual currencies the same as blockchain technology. The issuance and trading of virtual currency contain multiple risks, including fictitious assets, operation failure and speculation,” it said.
In the risk alert issued on Thursday, Shenzhen’s financial regulator specified three targets for crackdown, including onshore trading platforms, service channels for overseas registered virtual currency trading platforms and virtual currency sales. Thirty-nine local enterprises suspected of running virtual currency businesses had been identified, it said.
For 5,000 years, gold has proven its status as the ultimate store of value. Today’s investors rush to buy the precious metal at the faintest market uncertainty. Over the past decade, global central banks have joined the gold rush.
The volumes of gold gobbled by regulators across the world in 2018 reached the second highest annual total on record, the World Gold Council (WGC) reported earlier this year. The industry research firm highlighted that last year central banks bought 651.5 metric tons of the precious metal, marking a 74 percent year-on-year increase.
Gold ownership by monetary regulators is at a 50-year high with the following states currently making up the list of the world’s biggest holders of gold.
Over the past six years, the Russian central bank has been remarkably bullish on gold purchases. In 2017, the country squeezed China out of the list of the top five biggest gold holders. Last year, Russia became the world’s leading buyer of gold with net purchases reaching 274 metric tons. In February, the Russian central bank boosted foreign exchange reserves by 31.1 tons of gold, raising holdings of the precious metal to 2,149 tons.
Dumping US treasuries in favor of gold purchases is part of the government-approved policy oriented towards the de-dollarization of the country’s economy.
Paris is reportedly holding 2,518 tons of the precious metal, which accounts for about 60 percent of the France’s entire foreign reserves. French politician Marine Le Pen, leader of the National Rally, has been repeatedly calling for a freeze on the sale of the nation’s gold, as well as for the repatriation of all of France’s bullion being held by foreign states.
With 2,534 tons of gold in its coffers, Italy landed in the third spot in the ratings. The amount represents nearly 70 percent of the nation’s foreign reserves. According to the policy followed by the Bank of Italy, gold is the safest investment in times of economic turmoil and a safeguard against the volatility of the US dollar.
The Deutsche Bundesbank currently owns 3,483 tons of gold, which makes up far more than 70 percent of German foreign reserves. The regulator has been trying to repatriate some 674 tons of gold kept by the Banque de France and the US Federal Reserve Bank. The repatriation of the nation’s gold is expected to be completed by 2020.
Washington reportedly holds the world’s biggest gold reserves of 8,407 tons. This accounts for more than 75 percent of the national foreign-exchange reserves. The US Fed has not been as active in buying gold as other countries to prevent the devaluation of the dollar.