China to get new skyscraper every five days for three years

Telegraph UK ^ | June 8, 2011 | Peter Foster in Beijing

[Cincinatus' Wife]

China will "top out" a new skyscraper every five days for the next three years as it continues to embark on the biggest building boom in history, according to newly published research.

The 2011 China Skyscraper City List shows the speed with which China is redrawing the skylines of its major cities as it builds houses and offices for the millions of people migrating from a rural to urban lifestyle over the coming decades.

Compiled by "Motian City", a Chinese website for skyscraper enthusiasts, the list finds that China and Taiwan currently boast five of the world top 10 tallest buildings in Taipei (No. 2), Shanghai (No. 3), Hong Kong (No. 4), Nanjing (No. 7) and Guangzhou (No. 9).

There are no plans to beat the world's tallest building – the 2,716ft-tall Burj Khalifa in Dubai – but by 2015 China will have claimed the No.2 and No.3 spots with its Shanghai Tower, at 2,073ft, and the 1,988ft Greenland Center in Wuhan, the capital of the central Hubei province.

The blistering pace of construction is seen around the world as a sign of how the economic centre of gravity has shifted east, with China boasting nearly half of the 50 skyscrapers due for completion worldwide in the next six years.

[snip]

Where to find tall towers in China: the 2011 China Skyscraper List by location

1. Hong Kong 58

2. Shanghai 51

3. Shenzhen 46

4. Guangzhou 44

5. Nanjing 23

6. Chongqing 18

7. Tianjin 15

8. Wuhan 13

9. Beijing 13

10. Dalian 11

[Cincinatus' Wife]

True Cost of Fannie, Freddie Bailouts: $317 Billion, CBO Says " The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) says the real cost of the federal government guaranteeing the business of failed mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac is $317 billion -- not the $130 billion normally claimed by the Obama administration.

In a report delivered to the House Budget Committee on June 2, the CBO said a “fair value” accounting of guaranteeing the two defunct mortgage companies – known as Government Sponsored Enterprises (GSEs) – was more than twice as high as the Office of Management and Budget had accounted for....."

Bernanke's Talk Kills Stock Rally ".....Mr. Bernanke's comments follow a drumbeat of weak economic data and worries that the recovery is running out of steam. The government's disappointing jobs report last week came on the heels of several weak regional manufacturing reports and consumer-confidence data that have fueled anxiety on Wall Street...."

President Obama’s phony accounting on the auto industry bailout ".....We take no view on whether the administration’s efforts on behalf of the automobile industry were a good or bad thing; that’s a matter for the editorial pages and eventually the historians. But we are interested in the facts the president cited to make his case.

What we found is one of the most misleading collections of assertions we have seen in a short presidential speech. Virtually every claim by the president regarding the auto industry needs an asterisk, just like the fine print in that too-good-to-be-true car loan.

Let’s look at the claims in the order in which the president said them......"

They Don’t Call Them ‘Limousine Liberals’ For Nothing

Video: Obama 'Beast' Cadillac limo stuck on ramp

[HiTech RedNeck]

I don’t give these “high” (scuse the pun) odds of being able to open anywhere close to schedule.

[DB]

Central planning by bureaucrats always goes seriously wrong, so we'll see what happens long term here. My bet, not well.

[PieterCasparzen]

New skyscrapers - when do the occupants arrive ?

From what I read, they have whole empty cities erected by their planned yet corrupt economy.

[Proud_USA_Republican]

Entire new cities are being built and nobody is living in them.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0h7V3Twb-Qk

[Cincinatus' Wife]

China’s factories face big, labor-driven changes A bubble?

[Cringing Negativism Network]

Central planning by bureaucrats always goes seriously wrong, so we'll see what happens long term here.

-

"Free trade" is going seriously wrong.

China is kicking our butts, and we had better wake up before we collapse.

China is not the Soviet Union, and we are losing this time around.

WAKE UP PEOPLE

[PieterCasparzen]

IMHO...

The Chinese production is aimed at providing jobs where citizens can earn subsistence wages; that is the government’s idea of keeping their citizens happy.

It’s obvious that the government feels uninclined to have most citizens getting used to a high standard of living. It’s a foreign concept, since the government would be afraid of citizens who would be empowered because they could afford education and also would have money to invest and could therefore gather up wealth.

So pay is kept low and the goods and services produced in China are not affordable to most Chinese citizens.

Party insiders are allowed to start businesses and acquire wealth; they become the masters of all the locals they govern and/or employ, keeping them in line. They are in no hurry to change the system as they are “on top”.

Obviously their is extra productivity since labor is so cheap. This is even after selling huge amounts of goods to other countries like the U.S.

Hence, the government and crony businesses are acquiring huge amounts of cash in various currencies.

And then leftover productivity goes into huge projects and contracts thrown to the insiders to work on, and there we have empty cities.

This is why China is bidding up the price of food on international markets; they have tons of money. And they keep using raw materials, so they bid up the price on them as well, i.e., oil.

Eventually, there will be massive unemployment there as orders stop coming in and the building of empty cities gets ridiculous and environmental problems overcome their ability to respond.

It’s even crazier than that...

[Daaave]

Shanghai Tower, at 2,073ft.

Greenland Center in Wuhan, at 1,988ft.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Thanks for the comments and insight.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Amazing pictures.

I wonder if China has OSHA-type oversight???

[Cringing Negativism Network]

The Peoples Republic of China has a vastly more powerful type of oversight than OSHA.

Just saying.

[agere_contra]

Massive spending and concomitant debt-service is destroying your country. Free Trade is keeping its head above the water.

America has numerous competitive advantages. There are numerous reasons why a manufacturer might choose to build a factory in America rather than say The Congo, Zimbabwe or Venezuela. There are less obvious but still excellent reasons why America is a better choice than Ireland or Spain.

But there are also excellent reasons NOT to invest in America. The predatory socialism of the Obama regime. Crushing corporate taxation. Crushing EPA regulation. A tax code from hell. Bottomless legal risk. Unionized workforces (in certain states). A high minimum wage.

All of these can be swept away by the right administration. The US can still save itself, and I believe that it will.

But it can also shoot itself in the foot by reenacting the steps leading to the Great Depression as rigidly as if it were in a Kabuki play. Imposing tariffs would be one of those steps.

[Cringing Negativism Network]

Wrong.

We’ve tried your way. This is the result.

[WellyP]

No clean water, polluted air and they can’t feed them selfs but they have tall buildings. Sounds like a personal problem to me!

[agere_contra]

‘My way’ - Free Trade - doesn’t include as prerequisites the highest corporate tax on earth, crushing legal liability, crushing regulation and arbitrary governance that suppresses new hires.

Not to mention (NEW FEATURE!) a sliding fiat currency that encourages disinvestment.

All these things are symptoms of classic big-state socialism. Big state socialism is the problem with America. Not Free Trade.

Apparently you believe that socialism simply can’t be the problem, and that all that is needed for America to re-achieve greatness is for people to be forced to buy GM cars. If true, that would put you on the same page as Obama.

[ngat]

All international trade is government-managed trade.

[Darth Reardon]

Why shouldn’t the lawyers in DC tell me how to spend the money they allow me to keep? It’s not like it is MY money earned with my own labor.

[Cringing Negativism Network]

Look.

You would be far more credible as someone offering good faith suggestions on what America should do to be great and good.

If you were actually in America contributing. You it would seem, are very much part of the problem.

[familyop]

But China’s “ghost city” economy seized up and went back to the Stone Age over four years ago, according to the merchant/trade/import interests...er, economic experts. We can tell, because oil’s been nearly free since then.