Yesterday, I linked to Brett Arends' MarketWatch column on projections that China's economy will pass America's in the next five years.
Maybe.
Having looked at the demography, I agree with Mark Steyn that China will grow old before it grows rich.
I have been to a number of academic seminars and have read a number of articles on the urbanization of China. Whole cities will be created out of nothing to accommodate the droves of people leaving the countryside for the promise of a better life in an urban setting.
The Chinese are following the Field of Dreams principal of "build it and they will come." Whole cities have been built, but stand empty, awaiting the droves to arrive. Say what you will, at the height of our property bubble, at most a scattering of empty condo towers would scar the landscape. Not whole cities sitting empty. What impact will the bursting of the Chinese property bubble have on the larger world economy?
Check out this undated photo essay in Time magazine on the Ghost Cities of China.
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