A transcontinental flight west will transport you to the site of another Keynesian disaster. China's $585 billion stimulus binge is intended to meet only one goal: achieving the government's mandated 8% growth in GDP. Which means building cities that no one actually lives in.
The city of Ordos was built in five years and was intended to house 1,000,000 residents. Today it stands empty -- its gleaming towers and sparkling condos a testament to a stimulus package that created only temporary jobs -- but no real economy to speak of.
Ordos is a hyper modern city, full of brand new glass walled residential and commercial buildings, yet devoid of inhabitants. In its attempt to present a "growing" economy, and to "invest" its $585 billion stimulus into anything and everything, courtesy of comparable idiocy on the other side of the Pacific, China's communist party is now ruling over ghost towns. One wonders just how many such "efficient" projects sustain China's magical 8% growth.
Keynesian spending programs like these only delay the inevitable reckoning a bit; perhaps to be supplanted with a bigger, more spectacular crash when the bills all come due.
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