What is second home?
By stlplace on Dec 16, 2007 in Business, China
Week in review 12-09 to 12-15
1) China central bank, along with China Banking Regulatory Commission, defined “what is second home” for the lending purpose: it will be measured against a family (husband and wife), not individual. See this NetEase news.
12月11日，央行、银监会联合发布《关于加强商业性房地产信贷管理的补充通知》明确规定，以借款人家庭为单位认定房贷次数。另外，如果首套住房人均面积低于当地平均水平，再贷款购房还是按照首套标准执行。业内人士解释，以家庭为单位来界定，就相当于夫妻双方无论任何一方有向银行申请房贷的记录，另外一方再贷款买房，都要按照房贷新政执行，即提高首付比例的同时，贷款利率按照现行贷款基准利率的1.1倍来计算。
For more info, check out Baidu.
A smart move to contain the housing speculation. But will it really work as desired?
2) US Fed cut interest rate by 0.25, not as much as Wall Street liked. Stock tanked after the announcement. Obvious the baby (Wall Street) is not happy with this Xmas gift from Ben.
Separately Greenspan is saying the US recession is more likely. Why, Mr. Greenspan, you kept the interest rate low for long time and encouraged the housing speculation in your tenure 
3) China opens the securities JV, stock listings, during joint China US economy meeting.
4) Citi named new CEO. He is from India.
5) US to open group tour to Chinese citizens. Now Chinese citizens have one more place to gamble
