Chinese Collapse

The idea that China is in a bubble economy has been a back sheet story for some time.  I could go back and dig out an amazing number of very details stories.  Although it is hard to remember it now, Japan also seemed like very much the same type of juggernaut back in the 1980s.  The dystopian movie Blade Runner (trailer) had Los Angelos covered with Japanese signs and people.  Today with and aging and shrinking population they might consider borrowing some of our Latin American emigres.

Although it is not clear that this is the exact dynamic here, the boom and bust cycles are likely to start coming at a much more rapid pace as the multiplier of world populating and consumption intersects with available remaining resources (per capita usage x total population versus existing resources + newly found resources).

Chinese Collapse NYT

For nearly two years, China’s turbocharged economy has raced ahead with the aid of a huge government stimulus program and aggressive lending by state-run banks.

But a growing number of economists now worry that China — the world’s fastest growing economy and a pillar of strength during the global financial crisis — could be stalled next year by soaring inflation, mounting government debt and asset bubbles.

Chinese Unemployed Graduates NYT

BEIJING — Liu Yang, a coal miner’s daughter, arrived in the capital this past summer with a freshly printed diploma from Datong University, $140 in her wallet and an air of invincibility.

Her first taste of reality came later the same day, as she lugged her bags through a ramshackle neighborhood, not far from the Olympic Village, where tens of thousands of other young strivers cram four to a room.

Unable to find a bed and unimpressed by the rabbit warren of slapdash buildings, Ms. Liu scowled as the smell of trash wafted up around her. “Beijing isn’t like this in the movies,” she said.

More Unemployed Graduates World Socialist Web

China has a huge number of unemployed college graduates. In July, China’s ministry of education revealed that over 25 percent, or roughly 1.5 million of the 6.3 million students who had graduated this year, were unemployed. Of those who graduated last year, 800,000 remained unemployed.

These jobless graduates are part of a wider employment crisis. China’s first-ever “White Paper” on employment statistics was released on September 7. Entitled China’s Human Resources, it reported that the number of registered unemployed is 9.2 million or 4.3 percent of the urban labour force.

One example below:

China's High Tech Graduate's Ant Colony

The Chinese Ant Colony Newsweek (Picture Montage):