China’s Services PMI for August veered upwards, but that’s not the news. Noting that China’s massive but fracturing bubble in unused luxury apartments (upwards of 70 million are empty) is a serious headwind, analysts for HSBC were quick to plead for more stimulus:
The economy still faces downside risks to growth in the second half of the year from the property sector slowdown. We think policy makers should use further easing measures to help support the recovery.’
Stunning. Even the comrades in Beijing know that China’s credit tsunami has unleashed a dangerous speculative mania throughout the land that has no parallel in human history. For crying out loud, total credit outstanding (which Beijing’s red capitalists are pleased to call ‘social financing’) has exploded from $1 trillion at the turn of the century to $25 trillion today.
It goes without saying that there is nothing in the financial world more dangerous than easy credit. But when it multiples by 25X in just 14 years in an economy where there is essentially zero market discipline (because all debts are bailed-out and rolled-over when push comes to shove), you are dealing with a monumental catastrophe in the making.
This post was published at David Stockmans Contra Corner on September 3, 2014.
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