Sol Sanders: America’s Love Affair with China

From Zero Hedge:

But those Shanghai office towers across the river in Pudong were already standing empty a decade ago – not that you would know from any contemporary reporting. Former Prime Minister Rhu Rongji publicly pleaded with provincial bureaucrats to stop fabricating figures because it made it impossible for him to know what was going on. Only a year ago provincial GDP figures didn’t jibe with the national totals. But, never mind, our academics – and most of the financial media – kept right on, grinding out incredible gobbledygook about economics “with Chinese characteristics”, how its GDP make it No. 2 [despite subsistence living standards for the majority of its people], and how Chinese growth would save the world, etc., etc.

Now even The Financial Times, among the loudest indiscriminate propagandists for China straight-line projections, has taken a deep breath, predicting coming problems, perhaps even disaster. Ut oh! The Chinese boom has depended on export markets now drying up in the U.S. and the EU. It has relied on unlimited infrastructure expansion but government “stimulus” is leading to inflation. Virtually zero rural investment and protectionist trading are driving up food prices where most Chinese live. Banks’ newly created debt dumps are being used to lend to Party-favorites so there just might be a credit problem. The government is shifting to subsidized housing [but still beyond the reach of wage-earners] to deflate a real estate bubble, the only place “hot money” could go with government “planned” investment.

http://www.zerohedge.com/contributed/sol-sanders-follow-money-no-102-america%E2%80%99s-love-affair-china