I've heard this same argument, in its various iterations, from so many people over the past 15 years that I'm not surprised to see James Chanos, a well-known short seller, join the club, even at this late date.
As most of the world bets on China to help lift the global economy out of recession, Mr. Chanos is warning that China’s hyperstimulated economy is headed for a crash, rather than the sustained boom that most economists predict. Its surging real estate sector, buoyed by a flood of speculative capital, looks like “Dubai times 1,000 — or worse,” he frets. He even suspects that Beijing is cooking its books, faking, among other things, its eye-popping growth rates of more than 8 percent.
Notwithstanding his record of contrarian success, Mr. Chanos is but another Westerner to see past the smoke and mirrors to conclude that the end is near. (If you have been reading this blog over the past eight years of its existence, you will have read of many such prognostications.) If one could only find Chinese who agree.
[UPDATE (Jan. 11, 2010): Even more - yawn! - bubble talk. I don't mean this. I mean this.]
