24-Aug-11 World View -- Gaddafi vows 'Martyrdom or Victory'

[John]

24-Aug-11 World View -- Gaddafi vows 'Martyrdom or Victory' in Libya

China's looming debt disaster

** 24-Aug-11 World View -- Gaddafi vows 'Martyrdom or Victory' in Libya
** http://www.generationaldynamics.com/cgi ... 24#e110824




Contents:
### World View -- Gaddafi vows 'Martyrdom or Victory' in Libya
"Libya's rebels overrun Gaddafi's Bab al-Aziziya compound"
"Gaddafi vows 'Martyrdom or Victory' in Libya"
"U.N. Human Rights Council condemns Syria"
"Turkey says it killed 100 Kurdish terrorists in Iraq"
"Israel denies apologizing for Egyptian deats"
"Three Egyptians took part in terrorist attacks on southern Israel"
"China's looming debt disaster"
"Switzerland's Word of the Year: Sterbetourismus"

Keys:
Generational Dynamics, Muammar Gaddafi, Bab al-Aziziya compound,
Libya, Tripoli, Syria, UN, Human Rights Council,
Turkey, Iraq, PKK, Egypt, Israel, China, hidden debt,
Switzerland, Sterbetourismus, death tourism

[vincecate]

However, thanks to China's "hidden debts," China may be far worse off than either America or Europe.

The article does not do a fair apples to apples comparison. They compare just the US central government debt to China with central and all local governments and state banks. The US has local governments who have huge debts and also Fannie and Freddie which are like state banks at this point. If you add in these, the US is far worse than China with their "hidden debts".

The other big issue is that as a country China exports more than it imports, which means it is making a net profit as a country. The US imports much more than it exports, which basically means it is losing money. As long as people don't mind sending supertankers full of oil to the US in exchange for pieces of paper with pictures of dead men, this can go on. But if newly printed pieces of paper are ever not enough for the US to get real goods from the rest of the world, the US is in trouble. Imagine that world trade were suddenly conducted in ounces of gold or silver, or some ETF based on the CRB, or an ETF backed by investments in stock indexes around the world, or anything backed by real stuff. China would be fine, but the US would soon lose all its gold (or whatever unit) and not be able to pay for things.

[mannfm11]

China is in much worse financial shape than the US, but they don't have any property rights of note, so people will merely lose their money. In any account, I read an article in Caijing a few years ago by Andy Xie, formerly of Morgan Stanley. He stated at the time that total final demand for housing was 9 billion meters, figured by 300 million people moving into cities times 30 meters per person average. He said they were building 2 billion meters a year and that was early 2009 I read the article. What are they going to do with another 300 million people in cities? Then there is the demographic crash of 1 child policy that is soon to follow? I forget some of the minor details, but Xie pretty much said the country was already almost built out. At roughly 30 billion square feet a year, that equates to 10 million 3000 square foot homes or 30 million 1000 square foot homes. I have seen what happens when you quite building in an area where there has been overbuilding. I would double down against China.