Reading the Signs

Paul Krugman: China’s About to Blow

Even their rigged, fake data points to disaster.

It's not a day in news without requisite worry about whether China will overtake the U.S. as the world's economic superpower, but New York Times columnist Paul Krugman says we should be focusing on how volatile China has become. "Recent growth has relied on a huge construction boom fueled by surging real estate prices, and exhibiting all the classic signs of a bubble ... Now the bubble is bursting—and there are real reasons to fear financial and economic crisis." Western commentators assume China can solve all its problems because it doesn't have to be democratic. "To me, however, these sound like famous last words."