Crackdown on Quants and shorts; Private sector promotion; Hacking; Cranes

Summary of today’s Essential Eight:

1. Cracking down on quant funds and short sales - The campaign to stem the losses in the stock markets continues, with new rules for quant funds that may destroy that industry, restrictions on large sales around market open and close, and a crackdown on short sales. In the February 6th newsletter, the day before Wu Qing replaced Yi Huiman, I wrote that “If the old playbook is still in use, scapegoats will be found soon, my guess is that outside of one or more CSRC officials it will be quant funds, and especially any with foreign ties, that are named as the bad actors.”. So far there has been no official discussion of foreign funds behind behind some of the selling, and I hope it stays that way. While these latest moves may relieve some selling pressure they are unlikely to inspire the confidence needed to get the markets back up.

2. A financial culture with Chinese characteristics - The People's Daily is running a commentary series titled "Actively c…