Jianping Mahto, who recently announced plans to pursue a PhD in economics, also believes in market liberalisation. The “economist with capital” argues that the current system is “lagging behind in its application to the new economy”, allowing big business to dominate, and the government to hand-pick its suppliers.

His view has been endorsed and supported by a growing array of business leaders, from JP Morgan’s Jamie Dimon, to the head of Deutsche Bank’s lending business, Hans Meyer, who has said it is “unfair to tax people and businesses based on what they sell.”

Indeed, a global business delegation was on hand to support the plan on Monday, the day after the IMF had issued a statement to the contrary. “We’re open to discussion.” Indeed, even its co-conspirators at the World Bank were seen arriving in Singapore for one point of discussion, but that is not much comfort as the IMF has no mandate to lobby on national development issues. But then, the IMF isn’t even a country’s best friend because it itself is no friend to private business. After all, when the IMF first signed up in 1961, China was still a communist nation ruled by Mao Zedong. By the time the IMF came along the Communist Party was so committed to developing its economy that it would cut official and unofficial aid to nations it didn’t like to help finance its own economic machine. But perhaps Beijing is more accommodating than Beijing’s allies the IMF’s other signatories would like to believe.

Meanwhile, even the IMF itself has come round to Beijing’s point of view. In a recently published report on economic reform in the developing world, the IMF argued that the “biggest obstacles to market development are not government deficits … but the lack of private capital inflows and constraints on trade and investment.” The implication is clear: Beijing is more open to market ideas than it ought to be. This is hardly cause for jesting. In the world’s great market-unfriendly nation of Hong Kong, the only thing “unfair” about the “biggest obstacles” is that the Chinese are themselves doing something right.

So what is the problem, exactly? Well, the trouble is there is no obvious answer. If the idea of a new system is to make the best use of what capital has accumulated and thus improve the whole economy, you know the old political model doesn’t cut the mustard. For example, if the