Posted on 11/29/2008 4:47:35 AM PST by TigerLikesRooster
Panic In China Over Jobs, Economy, Cotton
The Telegraph is reporting China slashes interest rates as panic spreads.
Factory workers surround a damaged police car during a protest outside Kai Da toy factory in Dongguan, China. Photo: REUTERS
The People's Bank of China cut interest rates by more than 1pc point as the economy crumbles and millions of jobs are predicted to go ahead of Christmas.
The move came just one day after the World Bank predicted that China would grow by 7.5pc next year. The level of growth may appear robust by Western standards, but it would represent the slowest economic expansion in China for the last two decades. It is also perilously close to the 7pc minimum level of growth that Chinese economists believe is necessary in order to create enough jobs for the 6m university graduates who will enter the jobs market next year.
The PBOC reduced its main borrowing rate by 1.08pc points to 5.58pc, the biggest one-off cut since the Asian Financial Crisis in 1997.
Yin Weimin, China's Social Security minister, has revealed that employment is the Communist Party's number one concern in the downturn and said the "situation is critical". Unemployment is expected to rise from 4pc to 4.5pc by the end of the year and anecdotal reports have suggested that 3m people have already been fired in the industrial province of Zhejiang alone.
Two major provinces, Shandong and Hubei, have already responded by banning companies from firing staff without permission from the government.
Government Response
Note the typical counterproductive government response, to prohibit companies from firing workers.
Factories will either pay those workers to sit and do nothing or those workers will produce goods at a loss that no one wants to buy.
(Excerpt) Read more at globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com ...
I think Jim Rogers is wrong on China.
Ping!
In a free market system, you have business owners who have the money to buy loyalty to themselves from the low-level Party members.
Some American business or individuals love to be part of this new oligarchy, which they think would last long, but won't.
It seems that this is becoming a standard exit strategy, pioneered by the Russians.
The problem is that people of great ability and ambition will be born outside of the oligarchical families, and what to do about them. For a long time, such people, faced with limited prospects in their native countries, could move to the US or someplace else where they could rise on their merits. China will not want their most talented people to have the opportunity to emigrate. They will eventually face revolution.
the way i understand it is, thousands(maybe most???) of towns in China are built like old time US towns, ONE company/factory towns, and today when that sector of the world market goes down, there goes their ONE company/factory and hence there goes their town too... yes???
Who the heck is Jim Rogers? Do he use drugs?
Someone who has made more money in markets than you will ever dream of
Do he use drugs?
Occasionally
Who is this gentleman? George Soros’ original partner, Jimmy Rogers.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/quote?ticker=M9SA:GR
I think he’s probably lost more money than I ever dreamed of too.
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