This article is for subscribers. To read, please pass through the membership gateway on the Join Tab, at the top of this page.

This article is for subscribers. To read, please pass through the membership gateway on the Join Tab, at the top of this page.

Interview with Bearing Asset Managment’s Bill Lagner: by Eric King, King World News.

Money, Markets and Community Support Officers: global macro with Michael Hampton, Frisby’s Bulls and Bears Podcast.

Economics Perspectives: discussion of Inflation with Dr. Peter Warburton, Financial Sense Newshour.

Parking Militants and Hotheads: the problem of the automobile, with Jim Kunstler, The KunstlerCast.

Jobless and Looking: roundtable on Unemployment, Dianne Rhem WAMU Radio.

-Gregor

Painting: Mao, by Andy Warhol.

Meanwhile, let’s turn our attention to coal. The model portfolio has at least three positions which are either direct or indirect plays on coal. (this article continues for subscribers through the membership gateway, on the right side of this page)

Beijingers Get Back on Their Bikes: Michael Bristow, BBC News.

Barbarism and Good Brandy: John Michael Greer, The Archdruid Report.

Unemployment Tops 20% in Eight California Counties: Alana Semuels, The Los Angeles Times.

The Great British Economy Disaster: John Lanchester, London Review of Books.

Economists Deliver a Sturdy Smackdown of Peak Oil Demand: Kate Mackenzie, FT energysource.

Innovation, Schminnovation – Welcome to the Boring Age: Paul Kedrosky, Infectious Greed.

-Gregor

Photo: Abandoned Car Off Highway in Rio Grande 1972 by John Vachon, from The EPA DOCUMERICA Project.

Roach is much less definitive now, on the future of the global economy. It would appear the new face of China’s impending crash thesis falls to money managers such as Hugh Hendry in London, and Jim Chanos in New York. At a recent investor in event in Moscow, Hendry derided those who believed in the China story and cited Goldman’s Jim O’Neill as the leader of the “China–You Either Get it Or You Don’t” gang. Pausing for comic effect, Hendry replied to the quote: “And I guess I don’t get it.” Meanwhile, in New York, Chanos has embarked on his China crash thesis with presentations and slide-decks. Last decade, I used to refer to the band of China bears as the China Crash Kids. Many of them have faded away now, and apparently handed off to a new generation.

China is not so much about the false dilemma presented by folks like Hendry. China is not about our own false framings, that we project from our spectator seats in the West. Instead the axis, or perhaps axes, by which to better understand China simply travel along different lines. For example, it was common in the West to refer to China merely as an emerging economy last decade. But the 2008 Olympics I think helped to show the world that coastal China was not so much emerging, as emerged. Perhaps one of the greatest misunderstandings about China the past 10 years was to have reduced the country to nothing more than a sweatshop, fated to never generate internal demand. The latest faulty analysis centers on China’s real estate bubble. But again, the salient point is ignored: most Chinese property is bought without credit.

Recently I decided to talk with a friend, therefore, in China. There is no question in my mind that China faces serious risks, for example, in both energy and food supply. However, in my conversation I learned…(this article continues for subscribers through the membership gateway, on the right side of this page)

Dow to Triple Digits: interview with Robert Prechter, Frisby’s Bulls and Bears Radio.

Building a Planet with a Future: Alex Steffen via KUOW’s Speaker Forum series, KUOW.org.

The Vancouver Winter Olympics: cost and security for the Winter Games, Dianne Rhem WAMU Radio.

Peak Oil and its Effect on the Health Care Industry: interview with Dr. Peter Gray, Two Beers With Steve Podcast.

The New Junk Economics: From Democracy to Neoliberal Oligarchy: interview with Michael Hudson, KPFA Guns and Butter Radio.

The Afghan Rout of the Soviet Army: interview with Lewis Lapham, Bloomberg Radio Podcasts.

-Gregor

Photo: Dennis Oppenheim’s Device to Root Out Evil, Coal Harbour, Vancouver BC.