Hong Kong's Addicts

No, not the drug addicts that are soon to be rooted out by random drug testing (if the government gets its way, that is), but it seems we're addicted to spending. Recent research from Synovate pinpoints Hong Kong as the most pessimistic of the four Asian markets studied (the others being Singapore, Malaysia, and Taiwan), with the UK as the most pessimistic globally (the release of these data also happens to coincide with figures finally showing what we already knew - that the UK is now officially in recession).

What is more interesting though is that a mammoth over 50 percent of Hong Kongers responded that, 'despite misgivings over their financial status, they were unable to refrain from spending at the same level as during a positive economic climate.' By contrast, only 25% of respondents from Singapore felt the same.

Well, we're either going to spend our way out of this recession, or we're going to have a bl00dy good time trying!

(Sadly, despite myself, I'm afraid I probably fall into the half of us here who still keeps spending despite all logic dictating otherwise)