I apologize to my readers but over the past two weeks my site was infected by a pretty sophisticated virus that made it impossible for me to get into the site, so I was unable to approve comments and to post new entries. Since I also spent much of the past two weeks traveling, it was all the more difficult for me to get this cleaned up. I should have a new entry tomorrow.
this is a test
this, too.
Hi Michael
no biggie
still the best chinese econ blog on the ‘net
Don’t worry about it Michael — you don’t owe us anything, we just look forward to reading what’s on your mind whenever you have time. Something about a gift horse would seem apropos here.
one wonders where that cam from……………
Let me see if I get this straight: you make intelligent analysis that is pretty much against what China’s leaders would like the world to read and you get a “virus” that blocks your site…sounds like they are after you big time, which is no surprise whatsoever.
The big question is when will this type of behavior start in the US, as they have now full control of the big media outlets and the published economic data is becoming a farse.
Best of luck and keep up your good efforts.
Thanks, Jack, but I wouldn’t jump to conclusions. Bloggers everywhere have to deal with this kind of stuff. I usually oppose capital punishment but sometimes I wonder if there might not be legitimate exceptions.
> usually oppose capital punishment but sometimes I wonder if there might not be legitimate exceptions
Value systems influence socio-economic landscape. For example, Denmark (see book Affluenza) considers crimes to be more a health problem than economic. On the other hand, China (which does have the saying, kill one to scare a 100) considers economic crimes to be serious (Wall Street take note for next GFC). This is side-tracking but one speculative thought is whether the Judeo-Christian precept that there’s only one shot at redeeming the immortal soul fosters a more forgiving punitive regime (prison for punishment followed by forgiveness and reintegration) rather than a reincarnation belief (prison AS punishment and implicit assumption your virtuous position in society was predetermined). The disturbing trend seems to be growing acceptance that money is a free pass against societial constraints (cf that rich driver killing the peasant family) and that monetary compensation is “adequate”. Ultimately, when one considers legitimate exceptions for capital punishment, you are trying to put a value on the intangibles (human happiness) which lies in the murky zone between philosophy and social justice.
I believe the remark was posted in jest, however, way to take a statement and roll with it.
ECONOMIST CALLS FOR CAPITAL PUNISHMENT FOR HACKERS
Story at 11:00…
Just be careful. This was just a virus. There are many more unsavory things they can do to you. Just ask any one of a number of foreigners who live in China who have “disappeared” or gone to the big taco stand upstairs for going against the government.
why is your blog always under attack? is it because it is critical to the chinese economy that invite chinese hackers to hack it?
You might want to push your blog through Cloudflare. They have a series of checks that catch a lot of malicious content that attacks that can happen on your website. In addition, they also provide a caching service, which makes your site faster to load. Have been using the free service on a few websites that I have, and have to say that it works really well. Please ask the person who looks at your website’s technology to handle this properly.
Great to see it back and running. MUCH appreciate your insight. Besides your renowned track record on the future direction of China’s development or lack thereof, you also get hacked…. Now we’re really listening.
Great to see you back, was worth the waiting (well, I was working while waiting, so, well it was worth it anyhow!
)
As much as it is joyful to continuously stare at bills of cash, the background makes it a bit difficult on the eyes due to the weird contrast. Hopefully it would change to something more subtle.
Hello Michael,
Great Blog! This may be a stupid question, but have you considered having your site professionally hosted? Your data would be backed up, security patches would be applied by others, and you could just focus on content. There are a number of services out there — typepad, wordpress, google, etc. I am not advocating any particular one, but it may be worth your while to look at them.
“Never look a gift horse in the mouth”. The reason for this expression is that one of the primary inspection points on a horse when horse trading was to look at the horse’s mouth and check the teeth. Horses’ teeth continue to grow and deform with age and it was a quick check to see how old the horse was. But if the horse is a gift then of course it is really rude to start investigating the age and health in front of the person giving it. I suppose once you get it home then the stricture no longer applies.;-)