Chinese Debt: the Great Hole of China

From Economist.

China’s Productivity Problem Drags on Growth

From WSJ.

After Overwhelming U.S. Visa Program, Where Will China’s Emigrants Go Next?

From WSJ.

A U.S. State Department official told the Journal that the EB-5 program—which grants visas to those who invest $500,000 in a range of development projects—has hit its quota of 10,000 visas for the fiscal year and won’t receive new applicants until Oct. 1. Chinese applicants made up about 85% of the 10,000 visas granted under the program. It’s the first time in the program’s 24-year history that the quota has been reached.

China Is Awash in Grain Crops

From WSJ.

"As the harvest looms next month, the country is on track for an 11th year of bumper grain crops. But production is too much, even for the world's most populous nation, with warehouses bursting at the seams and posing a dilemma for policy makers.
Estimates from state media say the government will be sitting on 150 million tons of grains that include three of the most important crops for China: rice, wheat and corn. That is double the 75 million tons last year and adds to an oversupply of these agricultural commodities that is pressuring prices lower."

          ...

"China's surplus couldn't have come at a worse time for U.S. farmers, who are expected by the USDA to harvest a record 14 billion bushels. Corn futures have dropped 15% this year after falling 40% last year, and China's unwillingness to buy U.S. corn will further pressure prices, said Jason Britt, president of brokerage Central States Commodities Inc. in Kansas City, Mo."

The U.S. and China Both Need Economic Rehab

'Chimerica' has become addicted to ultra-loose financial conditions.
From WSJ by Ferguson and Schularick.

China's Coming Economic Slowdown

From WSJ.

Under Hitler, the Flying Hamburger train covered the distance between Berlin and Hamburg in 138 minutes; in postwar democratic Germany, it took the railroad 66 years to match that record. The reasons are simple. The Nazis didn't have to worry about local resistance and environmental-impact statements. A German-designed maglev train now whizzes back and forth between Shanghai and the city's Pudong International Airport; at home, it was derailed by a cantankerous democracy rallying against the noise and the subsidies.

...

History does not bode well for authoritarian modernization, whether in the form of "controlled," "guided" or plain state capitalism. Either the system freezes up and then turns upon itself, devouring the seeds of spectacular growth and finally producing stagnation. (This is the Japanese "model" that began to falter 20 years before the de facto monopoly of the LDP was broken.) Or the country follows the Western route, whereby growth first spawned wealth, then a middle class, then democratization cum welfare state and slowing growth. This is the road traveled by Taiwan and South Korea—the oriental version of Westernization.

The irony is that both despotism and democracy, though for very different reasons, are incompatible with dazzling growth over the long haul. So far, China has been able to steer past either shoal. It has had rising riches without slowdown or revolt—a political miracle without precedent. The strategy is to unleash markets and to fetter politics: "make money, not trouble."

Can China continue on this path? History's verdict is not encouraging.

Starbucks Charges Higher Prices in China

From WSJ.

China Seeks Clearer View of Government Debt Mountain

From WSJ.

China companies feel the investment hangover

An alarming development.

China's Rising Wages Propel U.S. Prices .

From WSJ:

During China's 30 years of economic growth, hundreds of millions of factory and urban jobs soaked up surplus rural farm labor. In the past three or four years, he says, that extra labor has been exhausted.

Many analysts predict that China's vast labor force will begin declining in the next year or two, the result of family-planning policies. Others say there's already a shortage of the most active members of the factory floor, workers aged 15 to 34. That group has been steadily declining since 2007, according to Jun Ma, Deutsche Bank's chief economist for Greater China. A shrinking work force will need higher salaries to support an expanding population of elderly.

Taxing China's Assets

Foreign Affairs has this interesting article for a policy dealing with China's currency manipulation.

China's Debt Burden Limits Policy Leeway

From WSJ.

Beijing Will Use New Credit Gauge

From WSJ.

China is About to Slow Down

Barry Eichengreen says that the a significant slowdown in China gorwth is imminent.

China's Catch-Up on High-Speed Rail Technology

An interesting and detailed article about how China learned the technology of high-speed rail from developed countries.

The History of Chinese Stock Market

Here.

Becker on China

China's Next Leap Forward.

The U.S.-China Exchange Rate Squeeze

Here.

U.S. Adopts Tougher Stance on China

Here.

Joint Venture and Intellectual Property

In China, Western Firms Keep Secrets Close from WSJ.