China's Fundamental Economic Problem - PolyMatter

[TexasTowelie]

Something is wrong with the Chinese economy. You can see it at job fairs, in rows of empty, half-finished apartments, and in the conspicuous absence of Chinese tourists everywhere.

Take unemployment, for instance. In just a few short years, the number of 16-24 year-olds who can’t find work has more than doubled, from about 10% in 2019 to more than twenty this summer, before the government simply stopped publishing data. If you think the NASDAQ has had a rough couple of years, just have a look at the Chinese stock market, which has lost about 40% of its value since 2021. Or, how about real estate? Last year, Chinese land sales reached their lowest level this century.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

1. Problem? Communism

Yeah, yeah, it is very far from pure communism, but it is still a command and control economy run with an iron fist by the Party and the Army.

The lack of freedom is stunting the econom;y, by which I mean fundamental freedoms of expression and the freedom to be non-conforming. Freedom works, freedom innovates.

It is like the US Army compared to the Russian Army at the level of Non-Commissioned Officers. In the American model, NCOs have a lot of power to improvise, change up plans and capitalize on opportunities. Russian NCOs have to check up and down the line before thinking.

No analogy is perfect.

[SWBTATTReg]

2. Boom to bust in a short period of time. I wonder how long it'll take them to go after the primary culprits,

the billionaires and millionaires that took advantage of the boom to bust cycle. I predict as they have done in the past, select a few individuals and make them responsible for the bust. Kind of like they did here in the US w/ the collapse of the housing market, who got nailed for it, other than perhaps Lehman Brothers (I know that there were others, but can't recall now).