From the monthly archives:
China has 78,000 kilometers of railroad tracks acrossit but expects that number to increase to 120,000 kilometers by 2020.
To pay for that, the Chinese State Council pledged $292 billion of funding.
Somebody is going to make a bunch of money from all that construction.
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With $1.9 trillion dollars in the bank, China hardlyneeds any handouts. That is why I was surprised to read that the World Bank is going to give China $510 million for reconstruction of theSichuan earthquake back in May.
That is a fraction of the $147 BILLION that Chinaexpects to spend but they hardly need it.
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The Nikkei traded as low as 7,486 last night, a 26 year low. The Japanese stockmarket hasn’t been this low since 1982.
Investors are pricing in a major, major recession.
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The Bank of Korea slashed interest ratesby 75 basis points, the most ever, in an attempt to restore confidence yesterday.
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27 European and Asian countries gathered in Beijing to discuss the spreading globalcrisis. And the main theme from the conference is begging for China’s help.
Jose Manuel Barroso, the president of the European Commission, said, “I very much hope that China can make an important contribution to the solution to thefinancial crisis. It’s a great opportunity [...]
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The NewZealand Central Bank cut its key interest rates by a bold 1%. And it warned that it expects the current recessionto last a long time.
Sweden cuts rates by 1/2%.
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Argentina is nationalizing its $30 billion private pension fundto protect it from the global credit crisis.
What it is really doing is grabbing future pension contributions and putting it into the general budget.
Bad, bad, bad move. How would you like it if the government took control of your 401(k)?
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China unveiled a barrage ofpolicy changes to goose its real estate market.
==> Effective November 1, the down payment requirement for home buyers will be lowered from 30%to 20%.
==> China suspended tax dutieson the sale/purchase of homes and ended a value-added tax on individual home sales.
==> Home buyers will be able to get mortgages at 70% [...]
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Reliance Communications, an Indian broadband company, is offering free laptops to Indians that sign up for a two-yearconnection service plan.
Acer, Asus, and Lenovo are partners in the deal.
If this becomes a successful business model in Asia, it will permanently affect the dynamics of computer industry. In other words,Dell will be in big, big trouble.
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Everybody thinks that a U.S. recession will kill China’s economy because we’ll buy fewer Chinese products. Wrong!
Only 17% of China’s exports go to the U.S. andaccording to the China’s National Development andReform Commission, only 1.2% of China’s double-digit economic growth came from exports last year.
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