I never heard of the name of Lin Zhao before. In Chinese history textbooks, some martyrs like Qiu Jin are recorded and praised for there devotion of their causes of revolution or reform. Any events or person during that dark age were deliberately ignored in history books except very vague and short introduction. However, it is people who created history, not the history textbooks. Forced amnesia are not possible because those events and person would be remembered by those were concerned with or involved in it. Actually I got to know Lin Zhao and other names like Zhang Zhixin from internet.
Lin Zhao was born in 1932 when China was not liberalized. She was a fervent believer of communism and also Mao. She ever supported underground CCP activities at that time. After the liberation of China, she run away from home and got to a vocational school to study journalism. Then she became a CCP member and later admitted by the department of journalism of Peking University. She was very different from other classmates in terms of life style and thinking. She got involved in the anti-rightist campaign and criticized its craziness. She was condemned as rightist and asked to confess but she refused. Then she was put in jail in Shanghai. She wrote a great deal of essays and poems criticizing the ill government. She was deprived of pen and paper. She used her blood as ink, comb as pen and clothes slices as paper. In 1968 she was sentenced to death. What is the most ironical thing is, Lin's family was asked to pay for 5 cents of bullet fee. Lin's death sentence was secretly done and many people including her classmates and friends knew it several years later.
I saw some of those blood writings in a documentary "Searching for Lin Zhao's Soul". I was completely shocked with that. It is not stage property in an ordinary film but real thing. She not only wrote essays and poem to criticize the system, but defended freedom through her struggle against the authorities. Her critics were inspired by the spirit of Christian traditions and also awareness of the situation of society. Some of her opinions are permanent. She wrote, "not only the slaves are deprived of freedom, but also those masters are not free". She also said, "freedom can't be obtained by replacing a slavery state with another". These words remain very meaningful today.
During the vindiction movement afterwards, Zhang Zhixin was officially regarded as martyr. Lin Zhao was just announced a case of mistrial. I thought that this kind of discrimination came from their different attitude on socialism. They are both adherents of socialism but they were killed in different reasons. Zhang Zhixin opposed personal cult of Mao and pointed out some wrongdoings of Mao and thought Mao went too left and diverted from fundamental Marxism. So Zhang was a socialist until death. On the contrary, Lin Zhao criticized the whole autocratic system on behalf of freedom and equality. Lin was greatly influenced by Christianity because she was a Christian from very young age. In view of CCP, Zhang is a family member and Lin was a stranger, which finally lead to different treatment after their deaths. But for me, it doesn't matter. The significance of Lin Zhao in the process of liberation of Chinese people would not be diminished without official recognizing.
I recommend anyone who want to understand practiced liberalism to see the documentary "Searching for Lin Zhao's Soul".
reference:
1. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/07/02/AR2008070203677_4.html?nav=hcmodule&sid=ST2008070202549&s_pos=
2. http://www3.nbnet.nb.ca/stao/memo_linzhao
Friday, October 17, 2008
Saturday, October 4, 2008
review on "Greed, Fraud & Ignorance: A Subprime Insider's Look at the Mortgage Collapse"
About a week ago I read a book about subprime mortgage crisis in the US. The title of the book is "Greed, Fraud & Ignorance: A Subprime Insider's Look at the Mortgage Collapse". I am not a professional in finance or economics, but I can understand what the book said. I just jolt down some notes about the book.
1. The essence of subprime mortgage is no bad
In its inception, subprime was targeted for those less creditworthy to have a home and there was nothing wrong in itself. On the contrary, it helped many Americans realize their dream of a home.
2. The roles of subprime industry
The main players in subprime industry are borrower, house broker, lender, investor, rating company. The borrower submitted materials to house broker and initiated a loan. The house broker acted as a middle man between the borrower and the lender but didn't take responsible for anything in loan application. The lender was supposed to check applications and determine whether or not lend money to borrowers. When securities came in, conditions got a bit complicated. The lender packaged some loans together and attempted to sell it as some kind of mortgage securities. The rating company rated securities. The investors bought this kind of securities according to its rating. The investors were expected to reap the repaid money from borrowers.
3. Problems
(1) One of the most important problems is the very low borrowing cost, which indirectly encouraged many people with bad credit history to apply loans. The practice of zero down payment is no good.
(2) Another problem is that the house broker were not well regulated so that they always tended to help borrowers do fraud in application in purpose of making as much profit as possible without thinking that fraud may harm borrowers or lenders.
(3) The rating agency had more power than it should have. The profits of rating companies is only related with the volume but not the quality of loans. This is the incentive of rating companies to tend to rate mortgage securities higher to attract more securities into the market.
(4) Maybe the above problems is just what we saw but not why it happened. If the origin of the problem is to be probed, economical policies of the past should be examined. One argument is that the long-term low interest rate led to the financial turmoil. I'm not sure about it. Some other arguments are about the long-term industrial policy such as the repeal of Glass-Steagall Act and the legislation of Financial Services Modernization Act.
4. Solution
(1) Increasing the cost of borrowing money by any means
(2) More strong regulation of the house brokers and rating agencies
5. Question
I'm not sure how the restoration of Glass-Steagall Act would take effect in mitigating the high-leveraged impact of financial derivatives.
1. The essence of subprime mortgage is no bad
In its inception, subprime was targeted for those less creditworthy to have a home and there was nothing wrong in itself. On the contrary, it helped many Americans realize their dream of a home.
2. The roles of subprime industry
The main players in subprime industry are borrower, house broker, lender, investor, rating company. The borrower submitted materials to house broker and initiated a loan. The house broker acted as a middle man between the borrower and the lender but didn't take responsible for anything in loan application. The lender was supposed to check applications and determine whether or not lend money to borrowers. When securities came in, conditions got a bit complicated. The lender packaged some loans together and attempted to sell it as some kind of mortgage securities. The rating company rated securities. The investors bought this kind of securities according to its rating. The investors were expected to reap the repaid money from borrowers.
3. Problems
(1) One of the most important problems is the very low borrowing cost, which indirectly encouraged many people with bad credit history to apply loans. The practice of zero down payment is no good.
(2) Another problem is that the house broker were not well regulated so that they always tended to help borrowers do fraud in application in purpose of making as much profit as possible without thinking that fraud may harm borrowers or lenders.
(3) The rating agency had more power than it should have. The profits of rating companies is only related with the volume but not the quality of loans. This is the incentive of rating companies to tend to rate mortgage securities higher to attract more securities into the market.
(4) Maybe the above problems is just what we saw but not why it happened. If the origin of the problem is to be probed, economical policies of the past should be examined. One argument is that the long-term low interest rate led to the financial turmoil. I'm not sure about it. Some other arguments are about the long-term industrial policy such as the repeal of Glass-Steagall Act and the legislation of Financial Services Modernization Act.
4. Solution
(1) Increasing the cost of borrowing money by any means
(2) More strong regulation of the house brokers and rating agencies
5. Question
I'm not sure how the restoration of Glass-Steagall Act would take effect in mitigating the high-leveraged impact of financial derivatives.
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