, Columnist
HSBC and Hong Kong’s Dollar Peg Face a Reckoning
Toilet paper shortages have been a reliable milestone of the city’s destiny as a financial center. We may be at one again.
HSBC, the dollar peg, and Hong Kong’s role as a financial center are joined at the hip.
Photographer: Anthony Wallace/AFP/Getty
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The saber-rattling by Beijing and Washington over Hong Kong threatens to end a chapter of prosperity that began nearly four decades ago — with a toilet paper shortage.
Empty supermarket shelves, similar to what occurred in the Asian city during this year’s coronavirus outbreak, greeted shoppers briefly in 1983. Back then, there was no pandemic, only a financial pandemonium, which was brought under control by pegging the exchange rate to the U.S. dollar.