[John23832]

China is building... and building and building. Houses mostly. It's basing its growth on housing and industry like the US economy.

The problem with that is that a LOT of Chinese people cannot buy a house. They simply don't have the liquid money or the same access to credit that American's do (for better or for worse).

So what they have now is a glut of supply in their housing market (built upon credit), with a lack of demand. And really there is no way for the Chinese government to create that demand. They can't go the QE route because your currency is restricted. You don't have diversified industry to kickstart. Steel is down. And you're already saddled with both domestic and foreign debt.

I'm no economist, but the future isn't that bright for China. Imo a Chinese collapse could be worst than an American one.

[seanmcdirmid]

I wouldn't use the word "collapse", but a "crash" is definitely in the cards. The political system is too fragile to think that it can survive a crash, so they are trying to kick the can down the road as far as possible, which will just make the inevitable crash worse.

We will live in interesting times, for sure.