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Guest Post: Chongqing - The Largest Construction Site In The World
Submitted by Tim Staermose of Sovereign Man
Chongqing: The Largest Construction Site In The World
By some accounts, Chongqing is the largest metro area in the world
with a population of some 32 million. They ought to call it the largest
construction site in the world.
This is a place that, if you believe the official numbers, posted 17%
GDP growth in 2010. It doesn’t take too long to figure out how that
happened. Driving around town, I found that Chongqing is in such a
building frenzy, they’re actually tearing down perfectly good (and
reasonably new) buildings and infrastructure, and rebuilding them.
To give you an example, next to my 45-story downtown hotel was a
building site where the constant drone of jackhammers signaled to me
that there was some breaking of concrete going on. The new tower under
construction had reached the 11th floor, but then they decided to tear
it down and start all over again with something even bigger
(102-stories).
[There are a half-dozen other such towers in Chongqing. Most of them
are officially "on hold," signaling to me that China is getting ever
closer to facing its bubble reality-- that demand simply cannot support
such investment.]
Then there are the pavement workers… half of them digging up the road,
half of them putting it back together.
It is the literal equivalent of digging ditches only to fill them back up, all in order to create employment.
The government certainly hopes that actual businesses will come to
Chongqing to mop up all the excess productive capacity that they’re
building (and then tearing down and rebuilding).
Chongqing is, in fact, at the epicenter of the “Go West” drive in
China, whereby manufacturers along China’s coast are being encouraged to
move their production facilities inland to take advantage of the
untapped labor pool and cheaper all-around costs of doing business.
Curiously, Ford Motor Company is one of the region’s cornerstone
investors. The company’s biggest concentration of production plants
outside of Detroit is in Chongqing. Ford aims to use the city as its
beachhead in China where its market share currently languishes at a
paltry 2.6%.
Perhaps in the years and decades to come, dozens, even hundreds of
businesses will relocate to Chongqing. Maybe the Chinese have it all
figured out and are thinking 25 years in advance. But today, it’s hard
to see how ripping down buildings and roadways (and replacing them with
ghost towers and the exact same roadways) could prove to be a worthwhile
investment.
A half-built building is a liability. A completed building sitting
empty is an even bigger liability. These aren’t signs of clever
planning, but of wasteful misallocations that are starting to crack the
facade of the Chinese economy.
So much superfluous construction did create temporary economic
growth… but now you can see the visible signs of unemployment rising.
The sheer volume of downtrodden and destitute Chinese on the streets,
coupled with rising consumer prices and declining output, all suggest
that deep instability is looming.
The Chinese have an old proverb: “Keep your broken arm inside your
sleeve.” They have been telling lies to the world and masquerading as
an economic miracle for years, but the signs of stress are showing.
Yes, China does have the right kind of potential with over a billion
people, substantial productive capacity, and a high savings rate. But
these dizzying growth rates have been a total illusion. With so much of
the world’s economic hopes pinned on the continued fantasy of 10%
growth, it’s going to be a hard landing for everyone once China’s
reality sets in.
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Well, well, rather funny indeed.
So, in the US, people with money can do what they want with it, it is none of our business to state what they should do with it. Dont comment if a guy snores coke and encourages prostitution by organizing sex parties.
Suddenly, when people with money are chinese, it becomes natural to comment and say they are wasting. Dont do this, Chinese, this is your money but the way you use it shocks us.
Who says that the US has an universalist bend? Ah, US citizens themselves. It explains all.
I hate wasting these electrons to comment on how dense you are.
Dont worry. Since you have not commented on 'how dense I am' but only told that you would hate wasting elections on commenting on 'how dense I am', well, you have not wasted electrons on doing what you would have hated wasting electrons on.
Aint life good in the US world order?
42,000 U.S. Military Veterans from WWI couldn't convince Washington to give them their due in 1932; but I suppose 420 million Chinese need to be kept busy - probably a bigger domestic problem.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bonus_Army
BTW - Internet Explorer 9 sucks so bad; avoid at all costs.
Microsoft must have Gerbils creating their software.
God what a P.O.S.!
P.O.S. = point of sale?
for gerbils
Massive gubberment spending there.....everyone is working for some branch of the gummit...if and when the guvmint slows.....32 Million unhappy people.
Maybe it's bubbly, but still China is where the manufactering is and that's what counts. In the end they produce what people want and in the west we produce lawyers and government parasites. So Maybe China will get a 1929 style crash, I think that is the time to buy (let it crash a few years). The next century will likely be China dominated anyway.
Better if they are building the same roads over and over than the same bombs over and over.
The last time that China's merchantalist policies almost bankrupted the west, we had the opium wars and gunboat diplomacy.
Those carriers, nukes and stealth fighters better be ready in double quick time.
Sounds daft all this building going on, but what if there is some truth to peak oil and the suggestion that the price of energy will go through the roof. If that were the case you would want to build as much as you could, whilst you could.
True enough, but building the same building multiple times doesn't jibe with efficient use of resources.
So I wonder what is going to happen to the global economy when China stops spending???
easy: everything outside the mainland goes in the shitter & they take over. take over what they don't already have, that is (via pending or executed purchases, contracts, etc.). 500,000,000-man army/navy definitely a plus
Makes me feel like up-chongqing.
To help explain Chinese differences between those in the USA, Taiwan, China proper or other nations and people in general:
Simple primer:
re-in-CAR-NATION
How one chose to live in a past life determines what country one has been born into into in this life. Reincarnation is a more "CIRCULAR" way of thinking as noted in some comments, but it is also LINEAR in terms of progression of one's SOUL - not life.
CULTure (Of China, USA, any grouping) is a reflection of past habits, and of types of souls/people that make it up. By the way all CULTures are CULTs of the highest order.
car/kar (C and K are equivalent sounds)
KARma
CHARacter
CAReer
CHARisma
CHARity
CHARade
CHARm
CHARlatan
Ideally - one wants to break the cycle of reincarnation - so better to not have KARma or any of those traits. Better to just BE.
While idea is more Eastern/Asian - applies all over the world. Westerners might want to learn from the East, as the East might want to learn from West. And whatever other direction you want to talk about. Clues all over...but our egos get stuck.
By the way the word COUNTRY - comes from CONTRA. As in we're against each other. Not exactly a recipe for PEACE.
:)
CHARgecard
CHARiot
CHARdonnay
CHARt
CHARcoal
CHARybdis
CHARmin
It ain't 100%. Charmin is a brandname. Maybe came from the word CHARMINg eh?
Or is this ur way of saying what u think about this? :)
There are many word patterns...and word / sound roots. But ZH forum discussion is not the place for in-depth - just a little post to plant a seed or two perhaps. A little bored here while waiting for the FLOOD of LIQUIDITY (As noted by user Sudden Debt) to wash over. History rhymes (As with the flood in the bible), but not exactly the same -- kind of like with words.
www.wordnavigator.com is a good place to discover patterns.
Word meanings/usage also changes over time. Multiple meanings also relevant - more than one way to describe something. Also contractions like you posted are a combination of meanings - CHARGE-CARD (But also electrical CHARge), or CHAR-COAL (Coal is burned).
CHAR = BURN - related to electrical CHARge perhaps. As for relating CHAR to the earlier words posted -- people BURNING up on the inside (Stress) - trying to maintain their CHARacter, CHARisma, CHARity, etc...rather than just be more "natural." A "CHARacter" is often a front/illusion to display to others - to hide deeper insecurities.
Very CONvincing people can be, those with lots of CHARisma, etc.....like "CON men" style of CONvincing. But that would only be for Be-LIE-VErs. Sheeple --> BeLIEvers of some of the best CON men in the game..the bad guys (Bankers, politicans, etc..) noted on ZH.
---
CHARiot - CAR - CARriage (Horses) - GARage (C ~ G, like Cat, Gato in Spanish)
Say it out loud - CARriage / GARage.
One could say their CAR (Auto(matic)-mobile) or CHARiot, etc...is a reflection of their CHARacter...lots of articles about that - such as color, brand name, etc...but maybe stretching it a bit.
CHARt could be related to CARD.How about a BUSY-NESS CARD for your CAReer perhaps?
CHARybdis - have no idea what this word is.
:)