

China: What world recession?  - gasull
http://www.salon.com/tech/htww/2009/05/01/china_surges_ahead/index.html

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baguasquirrel
Back in the middle of the decade, Chinese policymakers were struggling to
contain inflation. They managed not only to do so, but they saved up quite a
pile of cash as well. All of that took a lot of hard work and due diligence.
They reap what they sow.

That having been said, inflation is still a reality for them. Right _now_
their growth rate is around 6%, but their inflation is probably around 4%.
That means they're only getting 2% growth, which is paltry. How much will
inflation go up with the government stimulus being applied?

Still, it is better than how we're doing, but the point is that the truth is
--as usual-- a little more complicated than the news would suggest. It also
seems doubtful that they can have meaningful growth when so much of their
economy is dependent on exports, unless the current bout of reforms manages to
build up the middle class so that they have self-sustaining growth. This is at
least as difficult as the feat they just accomplished in reining in inflation.

~~~
akamaka
The parent poster has a much better grasp on the big picture than the author
of the Salon article.

While he was bashing western banks, he failed to point out that domestic
Chinese banks have long been giving out loans to unprofitable companies as a
way of creating employment, and that the central government regularly bails
them out.

China's economy is a really interesting and complicated subject, especially
given the unreliability of local economic data.

But Salon is just giving us useless linkbait by publishing an article with a
few cut and pasted quotes and a catchy headline.

~~~
baguasquirrel
Oh we're all well aware that transparency is a joke in the Chinese financial
system. Let's frame it this way. Remember Jefferson's argument that banks are
scarier than armies? Imagine if China actually HAD a working, efficient
banking system.

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knightrider
China has been in mental recession ever since its conception.

