The restaurant owners (see ambiv’s post, below) are fighting back, but it’s clearly a losing battle. In front of each of the restaurants now hangs a protest banner, white with black characters: “High Honesty Supermarket, give back our blood-sweat money!” “You illegally cut off our electricity, and treat tax-paying people like convicts!”, and so on.… Continue reading Mobocracy update
Category: Economics
Mobocracy, with Chinese characteristics
China is still nominally a socialist country, and still definitely an authoritarian state. But its economy thrives as a result of market reforms and an opening-up to foreign investment. Over $60 billion in foreign direct investment was spent here last year, as companies from all over the world sought to stake out early claims in… Continue reading Mobocracy, with Chinese characteristics
End of the China bubble?
It was bound to happen, of course. The irrational exuberance about ‘China’s Century‘ has begun to abate. The New York Times has given extensive coverage to the problems of China’s legal system and government corruption, and these same two themes were also high-lighted in a critical survey of the country in the recent Foreign Affairs… Continue reading End of the China bubble?
US housing prices in historical perspective
The Economist’s View features this look at a paper by Irrational Exuberance author Robert Shiller. Shiller has constructed a series of data on US housing prices going back to 1890. The resulting graph clearly shows that something out of the ordinary is going on with current US housing prices: As you might imagine from looking… Continue reading US housing prices in historical perspective