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Guest Post: As Ponzi Schemes Collapse the Chinese Government Fears Civil Unrest
Submitted by Israel's Financial Expert
China’s Shark Loan Ponzi Finance- As Ponzi Schemes Collapse the Chinese Government Fears Civil Unrest
Local governmental officials that are demanded from the government
to produce double digit GDP growth numbers give real estate developers
permits to build housing projects in return for bribes. They also get
bribes in return for allowing the shark loan companies to operate under
their jurisdiction. Some of them are active partners in shark loan
businesses. For example, a party secretary of legal affairs, that
controls the public security bureau, which is a court and prosecutor
division of government in Yanking city, in She Kiang province tired to
run abroad using a passport in 2009 after he found out he can’t repay
60million Yuan. Every scheme has a ring leader whose job is to collect
money from all the participants in the ponzi scheme. When some of these
ponzi schemes blow up, the party leaders always get bailed out first,
and some even ask local business owners to lend them money, and then
bail out their own personal fund. After that the ring leader turns
himself in and gets protection from the local government.
Most of the funds that are collected in this classic ponzi finance
go to local land purchases and real estate development. Part of the
funds are used in order to pay back the rolling loan. The short term
interest rate in this black market is very high and ranges between
20%-150% annual rate. The sources of the ponzi funds are diverse, as
ordinary citizens, banks with corrupted bank officials, and state
enterprises play the game.
This month, another Shark Loan Ponzi Scheme Collapsed in Huang Qiao Town In Jiangshu Province
China daily economic news reported:
Huang Qiao Town which is located in Taixing County, Jiang Shu Province
is known as “No 1 town in North Jiangshu” According to the article, a
few months back, expensive cars were roaming over the streets. But now
after the collapse of a giant ponzi scheme supported by 9 so called
“Mark Organizations” (local name for shark loan ponzi schemes), many
cloth shops, and barber shops (in China, many so called barber shops
are in fact brothels) are closed, and the expensive cars are gone. Town
residents are posting their shops and cars for sale to pay back shark
loans.
The collapse of this ponzi scheme at the town level, is a sign that
even the bottom part of the hierarchy of the Chinese society was
exposed to these schemes. This exposes the pervasivness and seriousness
of the shark loan problem. more and more local participated in this get
rich quick frenzy since normal business profits wages simply are not
enough to make ends meat .
The collapse was triggered by the actions of one of the female ring
leaders that turned herself in after she found out she can’t afford to
pay the high interest rate anymore.
Though all the “ Mark Organizations’ are run by independent ring
leaders, their funds are connected . As a result, after the exposure of
her failure, 9 ring leaders are now under police custody. The locals
even have a song for this shark loan frenzy:
People die for money
While birds die for food
They cracked down on the loan sharks
And now tens of thousands are in panic.
According to reports, 80 percent of families in Huang Qiao were
involved, and major ring leaders include government officials and their
relatives, housewives, teachers, shop owners, home decorators, and
barber shop owners (a nickname for brothel owners)
Some interesting anecdotes regarding this scheme:
1. As Local houses were all sold out, the ring leaders went to
Shanghai, Nanjing, and Jiangyin to “flip flop” real estate(Buy and sell
real estate in less than 1 months in order to make a quick profit)
2 One ring leaders has 19 residence estate all over china, with total value of 20 million
3 Expensive cars roaming the street
4 Gold purchases
5 local Gambling, drug, prostitute flourish.
6. The bidding procedure for “Mark Organization meeting”:
“Mark Organization Meeting” is basically an auction. During the
meeting, the participating bidders will compete by promising high
interest rates. The final winner is the man who offers the highest
interest rate. He then will use the collected funds to speculate in the
real estate market, or lend the money to real estate developers, home
buyers and basically anyone in need for a loan. One everything works
out, the local get their money back with the promised interest…
This a link to an audio of a recoding made of such an auction.
You can read more (with the use of google translate) at this link
of a local Huang Qiao Internet chat room that as a ponzi scheme topic.
Please notice that news coverage is strictly controlled and censored,
so not everything that is quoted in this article will appear in the
forum.
You can read even more at this Huang Qiao Local forum.
Many posts have been deleted, but even from what is left there is
evidence of , local riots and gathering, demanding government help.
From this thread,
that was written in Feb 2010, it is clear that some residents were
worried for a while. It asks the government to crack down on the loan
sharks, but apparently no action was taken. To understand how pervasive
these shark loan schemes are in Huang Qiao, please read this local
internet BBS forum poll, were 44 reported that they participated in the
ponzi schemes by themselves. The pool mentioned that only those who
directly participated in the “ Mark Organization Meeting” by themselves
shall say yes, if only relative and family member participate, they
shall count as no.
Big Danger of Civil Unrest
The first sign was a murder in “Tai Xing”
( Huangqiao is a town of Tai Xing city, the murder’s home town).
Apperantly, the owner of the Kindergarden were massacre occoured
participated in a ponzi scheme.
The locals in this province are outraged and they are trying to
organize protests and riots against the government and the ring leaders
of the ponzi schemes. Many posts in the forums are attempts by locals
to organize demonstrations. Since the internet is heavily censored in
China, many victims of the schemes are posting these letters on every
street corner in the town. They demand that the government will take
action, and that the ring leaders will be put in jail. They of course
demand their money back as well…
The ring leaders are trying to calm things downs, by handing out letters to local residents and posting them on street corners.
Bellow you can see the letters that were written by the residents and the ring leaders.
The local government fears civil unrest, and has posted this warning on every street corner.
A translation of the letter:
To the residents of Huang Qiao
Currently, the collapse of the fund chain has become a hot topic of all
over town. A small minority of people with the intention of trying to
disturb social stability, are stirring up the water, and are using the
governments name to start rumors in order achieve personal benefits. In
order to clarify the truth, the town government issues this open letter:
1. Huang Qiao Shark Loan ( Mark Organization Meeting” ) is a private
matter, it is illegal, and the interest is not protected by law
2. People who participate need to expect to lose money.
3. All Mark Organization Meetings will be closed and all the debts will
be settled peacefully, by negotiation, in order to minimize the loss.
4. The police will get involved in certain Mark Organization meeting, when the ring leaders are reluctant to pay
5. The public security agency will harshly punish those who are trying
to stir up social unrest, spread rumors, cause “muddy water”, and make
trouble for the government and social stability.
To get updates on China’s Shark Loan Ponzi Finance please FOLLOW US.
For more articles on the subject please visit China Shark Loan.
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Tyler, I'm glad to see you adding this interesting site to the menu of offerings here at ZH. Thanks.
[ rolls eyes because of shill comment ]
Funny how hostile israel is toward China.
The real story is the bombing of the tax office in Beijing.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100730/wl_asia_afp/chinablast
The result of a local official not obeying to the central planners.
its just business....
A jewish man and a chinaman...dark, I just sent your joke to 25 people, thanks for sharing it here.
OUTFRIGGINSTANDING stuff dpofs!!
I don't get your comment. what does that article have to do with Israel other than that the writer seems to be Israeli?
Too much propathol doc?
You must be one of those elite, high-IQ thinkers I've heard about...
Propofol?
And thus we glimpse another pillar of strength of thee Great Economic Giant. All is clear.
bbbbut...bbbbut..China is the future!!!!!!1
China and other developing countries are the future for the next 50 years. The West will attempt to use war to stave off decline but the die is cast. In the end we are all cooked.
Not if you own farmland...
Depends if your neighbors want what you have...
All ponzi schemes eventually collapse. It is mathematical inevitability, doesn't matter if you're a capitalist, communist or a farcist. The cash flows always catch up and crater you. Lots of bubbles all over the world at present, the Chinese bubble won't end well.
This has nothing to do with any bubble.
Clearly you haven't been following Real Estate prices in China. Or are just trolling. It has everything to do with a bubble.
Reminds me of the two thirty somethings that rolled into our town in a brand new Bentley from Kalifornia looking to buy real estate in AZ. Paid cash (top dollar in 2006) to buy spec homes for rentals. The money came from Kalifornians with big HELOCs pooled to buy AZ real estate, hold for 1-3 years and flip for big gains. We all know how that story ended....
What a crappy article.
This is the kind of quality I expect from WhatReallyHappened, not ZeroHedge.
It is crap.
For the last few years 80% of all large residential and commercial building has been funded by government owned companies. Most are manufacturers with no connection to real estate. The government owned banks flooded them with cash wanting to keep growth high. With the drop in exports the manufacturers used the money to buy huge tracks of prime land to build on. They were able to outbid real estate firms. The manufacturers want to make higher profits than can be had selling finished goods. These same companies are also huge investors in the stock market. There will be a push to move hundreds of millions of Peasants out of the country to fill the vacant space. In the end everyone is going to have to take a haircut. The dollars the government owns will be used to cushion the fall.
Wow... this inside the Free markets of the CCP?
finally an article on china (and chinese-flavored corruption) that doesn't resort to ringing the jingo bells. funny thing about the chinese is that when this stuff finally comes to the surface (which takes awhile), they actually are somewhat effective in calling their masters on their shit. a wise lesson to learn.
In the end the Chinese will possess world class infrastructure most of which is less than 20 years old. They will also owe foreigners nothing. They will be forced to let their lower class consumers consume more and save less. Something they have not allowed.
The West will own decrepid infrastructure with no money to fix it. Europe will be crippled by an aging population and the US and Europe will see radical changes in demography. The standard of living of the lower and middle classes in the West will drop.
In the end many Western countries including the US will be forced to repudiate it's debt and dump social programs. The raw material faucet will be strangled as countries demand payment in gold or tangible goods like food or aircraft.
or land
perhaps you're correct, perhaps you're not.
personally, i prefer to let mother earth take care of all. and i choose to believe that that day of reckoning will come sooner than most think...but that's me. karma's a bitch, no matter what race you were born into, nor between which arbitrary lines on the current maps you reside. whereever you go, there you are.
me also believes that the future is not west vs. east, but rather a synthesis between the west and the east. from observation, it seems that both currently dominant Nation-States in each hemisphere agree. unfortunately, they are each assimilating the worst of the other culture, rather than the best.
then again, 'best' and 'worst' are all a matter of perception, yes?
Enjoy a fantacy novel do you? China is a great potential as an organized workforce , and even an Asian master, but China has not the human potential to ennovate and hold power. Never has...Theres a far bigger global view than China and that expectation has Europe as a central pillar..
China never had much of a chance to succeed in the the last 200 years since the Western powers have done everything possible to cripple and loot it. Read Teddy Roosevelt's letters to his son Kermit or the new book by James Bradley. The US backed Japan's invasion of Manchuria and Korea. The US also backed the British and Dutch occupations. Millions of Chinese died because of the US. Now that the Chinese have nukes, the US will think twice before F'ing with it directly. I would expect the US will continue to send weapons and money to the various minority groups in China hoping to cause chaos. The minorities will rue the day they teamed with the US to start an insurrection.
http://www.minnesota912.com/blog/?p=86
Tell it brother.
That's interesting, considering China has an "aging population" as well. As a matter of fact, the entire world does as most projections show the world population peaking in 2050.
Either that or the fallout from a number of things will cause a bit of deindustrialization, sending total fertility rate much higher. With issues like Peak Oil, Peak Natural Gas, and even Peak Coal in the next forty years it wouldn't surprise me if a good portion of society goes back to living like it's 1920 all over again.
Yes, it's an excellent article. You don't really get this kind of info from the MSM. I was wondering how the destruction of capital in China was taking place. It's nice to see some local reporting on it, and not the usual Propaganda.
The biggest labour camp in the world rebelling ..............
I always wonder why Americans consistently tolerate US govt's schemes.
could be that .5 trillion annually on cool war toys.It may take them time to get there but when they do it will be foot on neck and then conversation.and you will tolerate or you will die.
It sounds like the Chinese government doesn't really give a sh*t.
After more than 20 years of dealing with the Chinese culture I can assure you that their lust for money and willingness to gamble for it are unsurpassed. Even the farmers are as shrewd and greedy as any Wall Street bankster. Toss in several generations trying to make up for lost time, a few hooked up guys who made it big, a government corrupt to its core, shake a little and you have all the bubbles you can imagine. This will be interesting as it plays out.
The author is just another writing little penny lane tunes for the State Department.
Puppet master central is Gewirtz : http://www.law.yale.edu/faculty/PGewirtz.htm
Next time you hear of a Uighur Freedom fighter movie (The Ten Conditions of Exile) featuring momma gangster & smuggler & State Dept protected species Rebiya Kadeer then look to see who wrote the script (Julian Baird Gewirtz). He and Daniels going from nothing to getting a massive budget doing State Dept propaganda historical docos following the familial interests.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/julian-baird-gewirtz/not-childs-play-the-s...
http://hpronline.org/world/chafing-at-the-bonds/
http://www.presidentialscholars.org/scholars_state2.asp?school_state=CT&...
So maybe "Israel" or whoever he is might get his Presidential Scholarship too. A little filth here and a little booster diplomacy there and a little positive discrimination from the family friends racket on the way and "there it is".
And next time you hear "legal human rights lawyer" getting arrested for tax evasion in Beijing for undeclared foreign payments. Look back to the discovery of the Gewirtz/Yale source of the cash.
Now back to this little tune. Remember in the 80's when all the Chinese State owned enterprises were loaded up with do nothing cadres and debt over their heads that was never repayable? Then they told all the student cadres at university that they couldn't be assured jobs anymore because they were reforming it for merit based employment. And then the cadres did their Tianamen Square thing and they were according to the State Dept not regressive leftists but "Democracy Freedom Fighters". Well same thing here. Nobody wants public harmony more than the Chinese Communist Party elite. They pander to populist sentiment at every turn and will execute all the bad guys according to local wishes. It won't be like Wall Street and the GFC. The other thing is that State's with structural issues and surpluses and private citizen savings can go a long long way down the road unreformed before it catches up with them. Look at the Japanese. But also look at the Chinese record, they do reform and they deliver.
I met a prototype Jewish guy in Shanghai in the 90's, into auto components "among other import-export trades". The guy had been localising and manouvering his way through work permits while doing "business" with the GM plant. Looked a little haunted hanging aroundhotel bars so maybe he had a claim to belonging with the white Russian WWII refugee ghetto thing. But the angles that worked didn't last as well for the individual as they did for the Chinese. The corporate side like the GM deal works but probably for as long as it serves to lead the locals. "So much business here but it is too tough with the Chinese and we're stuck with the Americans".
I have one basic requirement when it comes to reading. If you can't write properly, I won't read your rant. Sorry, kill or be killed.
Correct. People whose second language is English aren't too smart are they. And your brilliance at realizing this fact is stunning. Thank you for gracing our presence...
I appreciate that people from whom English is a second or third language can have trouble expressing what might be a good point. You must appreciate that time is limited and there is no monopoly on good points. Indeed, the market is competitive, if rather small.
Opportunity costs are costs. Isn't this supposed to be an economics blog?
Ironically, the first paragraph could have been written about the US housing bubble.
With some stretching you can see shades of Angello Mozillo within the discriptions of the ponzi.
Ashes, ashes, we all fall down.
All these real estate ponzi whatever were learned from the West, with the likes of Toll, KB, Horton and Pulte. Funny thing now is how many Chinese on the run are buying up $1MM gated mansions in Las Vegas for the mid $300,000s. Its like all those Florida mansions for bankrupt Americans. "With two you get egg roll." China is a feudal land. The city, county and province will do or say anything to get some cash. Just as the Fed pumped the sub prime market, so too did the PBOC, MOFCOM, MOFFIN and the NDRC.
Corruption is universal and the Chinese have a 5000 year jump start.
The first 'pig in a poke' started 7500 BC with the Zhenpiyan.
Tens of thousands of Chinese are buying homes in the US for their kids and a once in a while vacation home. They assume in 15-20 years their kids might want to go to school in the US. They are also assuming prices will recover by then.
I guess that we 'astute' commenters are missing the point...which is who loses in the Ponzi collapses, exactly, and what are they going to do about it? As someone who actually took a class called 'Theories of Social Violence' in college, the Chinese strike me as very good students of carefully directed social violence. The pressurized dance between the central gov't and various aggrieved groups is fascinating. But if Ponzi collapse goes viral or systemic, they can't possibly keep up with carefully targetted combo plates (sorry) of satisfaction and retribution. What larger scale policy responses are open to the central gov't? How will the rich, the middlemen, the heavies, the urban and the rural 'masses' react?
One thing is probably a good bet: the vast majority want the system to succeed. They have seen the cost of failure at massive scale before. Observe, then, social evolution of an epic nature unfolding.....
This article should have had an editor and somehow has a hidden agenda, but the topic is very rich and the use of actual posters and street level data is very good. Overall thumbs up.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m6ipL7ECoHQ
I love that part "don't make trouble for the government."
It's not that criminality and fraud are rampant, no...what matters is that they don't want you to bother them about it.
Telling the truth will get you locked up everywhere now it seems.
One thing that Zhongguo could do with its surplus housing is bring back a pseudo-danwei - give the mobile army of bachlors a free place to crash while the economy evens out.
It sounds like the federal reserve and NY fed. where you engage in a ponzi sxheme and get promoted. No difference between here and the us. the oligarchy will maintain the ponsi scheme at any cost until it collapses.
Asian Governments are corrupt, where I live in Asia is completely corrupt. If you have money the corruption can often serve and make life easier, if not then it takes from you only. Often amuses me how other expats will complain about the overt in your face corruption here, saying that it isn't like that back home.
The fools don't seem to realise that it may be less obvious on a day to day basis in the west, but the corruption is on a far larger scale, that few notice, shows how efficient it is. So maybe are industries are inefficient, as so our welfare, our services, but our corruption is a finely tuned money makin' machine completely oblivious to most. Now thta is something we can be proud of.
Illinois's government is corrupt, where I live in Chicago it is completely corrupt. If you have money the corruption can often serve and make life easier, if not then it takes from you only. Often amuses me how other expats will complain about the overt in your face corruption here, saying that it isn't like that back home.
The fools don't seem to realise that it may be less obvious on a day to day basis in the east, but the corruption is on a far larger scale, that few notice, shows how efficient it is. So maybe are industries are inefficient, as so our welfare, our services, but our corruption is a finely tuned money makin' machine completely oblivious to most. Now thta is something we can be proud of.