• Buy Books On Gold
  • 0 items$0.00

Times of Gold

People build civilizations; governments destroy them.

Phil Barton
Philip Barton, Author
  • Buy Books on Gold
  • Reviews
  • Article Archives
  • Links
  • Contact

Will China Pop the Global Everything Bubble? Yes

April 26, 2022 By Philip Barton

Tuesday

In my opinion, this is one of the most important articles on the year, so far.

By Charles Hugh Smith – Saturday, October 30, 2021

The line of dominoes that is already toppling extends around the entire global economy and financial system. Plan accordingly.

That China faces structural problems is well-recognized. The list of articles in the August issue of Foreign Affairs dedicated to China reflects this:

Xi’s Gamble: the Race to Consolidate Power and Stave Off Disaster

China’s Economic Reckoning: The Price of Failed Reforms

The Robber Barons of Beijing: Can China Survive its Gilded Age?

Life of the Party: How Secure Is the CCP? (Chinese Communist Party)


These are thorny, difficult issues: a demographic cliff resulting from the one-child policy, soaring wealth-income inequality, pervasive corruption, public health issues (diabesity, etc.), environmental damage and a slowing economy.

What the conventional analysts do not fully grasp, in my view, are 1) the existential threat to the CCP and China’s economy posed by its unprecedented, metastasizing credit-asset bubble and 2) its incipient energy crisis.

As I explained in a recent blog post, What’s Really Going On in China?, the CCP and the government informally institutionalized moral hazard (the disconnection of risk and consequence) as a core economic policy.

Every financial loss, no matter how risky or debt-ridden, was covered by the state (via bail-out, refinancing debt, new loans, etc.) as a “cost of rapid development,” a reflection of the view that some inefficiency and waste was inevitable in the rapid development of industry, housing, infrastructure and a consumer economy.

What China’s leaders did not fully understand was this implicit guarantee of bail-outs–the equivalent of “The Fed has our backs”–incentivized debt-funded speculation as the lowest-risk, highest-return “investment,” especially when compared to low-profit, risky investments in low-margin export industries. (Recall the average profit margins of Chinese exporting enterprises is 1% to 3%.)

This is the hidden driver of China’s sagging productivity and economy: debt in all sectors is skyrocketing to fund speculation, not productivity.

Read it all HERE

Filed Under: Other News

Archives by Date

Books on Gold

  • Dawn of Gold by Philip Barton Dawn of Gold by Philip Barton (eBook Instant Download) $9.95
  • Gold Basics by Philip Barton Gold Basics by Philip Barton (eBook Instant Download) $4.95
  • Dawn of Gold and Gold Basics by Philip Barton (2 eBooks Instant Download) $10.95
  • Dawn of Gold by Philip Barton Dawn of Gold by Philip Barton (Hardcopy) $36.95

Categories

  • Authors
    • Philip Barton
  • Other News

Copyright © 2023 - All content owned by Times of Gold. Website created and managed by Claire de Jong, Website Designer & Developer.