Friday, January 20, 2012

A First Hand Report on the Ghost Buildings of China

EPJ reader Adam Evan writes:
I just returned from a family trip to China and heard some interesting things. Our guide in Beijing was particularly candid about economics and government. The most interesting information he shared was about his apartment in Beijing.

The guide told me he bought his apartment in 2003 and since then it has quadrupled in value to approximately $1 million. Further, he does not own the apartment, he merely has a 70 year lease from the Chinese government. The "owners" of the apartment buildings also only have a 70 year lease for the use of the land.

We visited four cities while in China. In three of the four cities we repeatedly saw half finished or empty apartment buildings/skyscrapers. Directly across the street from our hotel in Shanghai was an empty 20+ story building
It should be noted that these empty buildings are all reported as part of China's GDP and dutifully reported by MSM as real growth. The China collapse is going to be a biggie.
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3 comments:

  1. Central Economic Planning on steroids.

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  2. Ah Grasshopper,

    What continues to amaze me is that the entire world is in total denial.

    Perhaps it is because we humans are highly resistant to change, even when it is in our own best interest to do so. Some remote portion of our Neanderthal brain is programed, "different - bad, same - good".

    Our current system is crumbling and will collapse in a crack up boom of truly epic proportions. Some have begun to awaken and prepare, but most close their eyes and with fingers in ears yell "la la la la la", hoping that when they open their eyes they will have passed the graveyard and everything will be as it was. It will not happen - in your heart you know this is true. Get over it!

    it is intuitively obvious that many cling to the past because it's known, comfortable, and they have a huge vested interest in maintaining the status quo - even when it is already dead and merely on life support. The truly sad thing is that our world leaders continue to use the same failed responses and tools that have brought us to this global crisis and total loss of confidence in our institutions. In the process they waste huge and sometimes irreplaceable resources jousting with windmills, supporting failed institutions, and fighting needless wars. In a way we are the victims of our own inability to embrace change and leave behind the systems that have failed us so profoundly.

    The Chinese may well replace the U.S. as the poster child for what not to do. When three billion people were given their first taste of economic freedom, the result shocked the world. But the change was so quick it scared the bureaucratic machine. Their knee-jerk reaction was to try to re-gain control. They are learning that this will not possible. Those days are gone forever. Once freedom has been tasted, it will not be given up.

    Leading billions of people is like herding cats - the trick is to get the majority going in the same direction. Control is an elusion. China still has a highly compliant population, but even that is changing at an accelerating rate. The empty city phenomenon is simply the physical manifestation of a last ditch and failed attempt to maintain control over three billion Chinese. Good luck!

    For decades I have wondered why we seem to have been unable to produce leaders with the wisdom and courage to move us forward. Do men and women possessing these traits no longer exist? Are we left with a bunch of money grubbing empty suits and talking heads with little substance and even less integrity? Fortunately the answer is no. Their time has now arrived.

    Be of good cheer grasshopper, something wonderful is about to happen...

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  3. It's things like this that increase my love for EPJ.

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