You can gauge market sentiment by the annual Cathay Pacific/Credit Suisse Hong Kong Sevens. When there’s confidence, box themes are extravagant, goodie bags are overflowing, and bankers’ girlfriends are dressed as naughty nurses. Despite war, natural disasters, and our own readers forecasting “a slow and unremarkable recovery” in 2011, the sentiment at the sevens was all about outdoing the competition.
While that would typically worry us – nothing screams “a crash is coming” more than bankers breaking champagne bottles and frivolously spending because they can – this year’s sevens left us with a good vibe because the partying, in all of the boxes, put the client front and centre. As it should.
