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Xi Murdered The Chinese Economy
China's no closer to shaking the deflation demon that's haunted the world's second-largest economy for more than a year.
Consumer prices managed a meager 0.2% YoY gain in June, data out of Beijing on Wednesday showed. That was just half the gain consensus expected.
If you're feeling charitable (and I don't know why you would be considering this is an unforced error) you might note that this makes five straight months during which the main CPI gauge at least managed to stay in positive territor
I’m really enjoying these little fictional (?) inserts in your articles lately. Mao suit is gonna be my Halloween costume.
Yeah, I’m in the zone with this stuff now. It took eight years, but I’ve finally achieved the editorial mix, cadence and voice I was after.
The cadence has been good lately
+1
FWIW, I think trying to deflate the property boom before it became truly gargantuan and without creating a depression was a tightrope exercise and one I thought Xi was correct in attempting. If anything, he had left it too late.
But COVID lockdowns, destroying tech etc. etc. All of that wasn’t necessary and the cumulative/reflexive effects made the whole thing worse than it had to be…
Real estate was a huge part of China’s household income and savings, government revenues, banking, etc. Other parts of the economy needed to be grown, to compensate for RE being taken down.
Perhaps the Chinese population is remembering what it was like the last time there was a Mao and are just keeping their heads down.
It could be some form of covert consumer saving for a rainy day … putting their money in the mattress, so to speak. They will need to take care very good of those mattresses, however.