Ghost Cities of China

[ad hoc]

Or if it is about ghost cities, Turkey https://www.theguardian.com/world/vi...elopment-video

[Ginger Yellow]

If I'm reading this right, China's central bank is accepting banks' own capital instruments as collateral for long term repo, in order to boost lending to the already NPL-ridden SME sector. Yikes.

[Ginger Yellow]

NPL ratios exceed 40% in some Chinese banks, government admits. Annoyingly the piece doesn't give any indication of the proportion of banking assets these high ratio banks make up, so it's hard to tell how serious this is. Though if you've got such high ratios in what was until very recently a country where the government simply wouldn't allow companies to default, that's pretty damn scary.

[Tactical Genius]

NPL ratios exceed 40% in some Chinese banks, government admits. Annoyingly the piece doesn't give any indication of the proportion of banking assets these high ratio banks make up, so it's hard to tell how serious this is. Though if you've got such high ratios in what was until very recently a country where the government simply wouldn't allow companies to default, that's pretty damn scary.

That's behind a paywall. Any chance of a summary in plain English?

[Ginger Yellow]

Well, the link is the summary, really. There's a government report that says many banks have very high ratios of non-performing loans (think Greece after the Eurozone crisis levels). But the information in the article doesn't really let you tell whether it's systemic or not (I mean, obviously it is, but the disclosed info doesn't show that). These could be tiny banks or they could be huge banks.

[Ginger Yellow]

Not quite ghost cities but almost.

China’s “thousand charming towns” initiative was supposed to dot the vast countryside with beautiful, liveable and themed villages, carrying names as eclectic and zany as Crayfish Town, Asian Games Town, Poetry Town, Fairyland Town, and Happy Town, which would come complete with a “sex park”.

But last week’s collapse of a private company behind many of these developments has seen dozens of senior executives detained by police and thousands of investors scrambling for answers, desperate to recoup their money. The sudden failure of JC Group, based in the city of Hangzhou in Zhejiang province, marked another bankrupt fundraising programme in China and exposed the huge risks behind the country’s state-led, debt-fuelled development drive.

[ursus arctos]

Sounds like someone fell behind on his facilitation payments.

That was a good piece, but the SCMP was one of the last papers I would have expected to have autoplay video with sound.

[Evariste Euler Gauss]

I'm guessing "sex park" is just an inexpert translation. Unless China has a more relaxed attitude to such matters than I would have expected.

[ursus arctos]

Sex toys are not the first things that spring to mind when visiting Yucheng, a sleepy, riverside town in the Yangtze River Delta, about an hour’s drive from Shanghai, best known for its grapes, mulberry trees and turtle ponds.
But the town government, which wants to turn it into a one-stop market for adult products, signed a 10 billion yuan (US$1.5 billion) deal with a Chinese company this summer to develop a “Happy Town” that will include a sex toy shopping street, a sex exhibition centre and an “adult-only” hotel.

[Ginger Yellow]

It seems to have been intended to be a sex or at least sex toy themed theme park.

[Nocturnal Submission]

They obviously saw a gap in the market.

[Anton Gramscescu]

Or it;s a desperate attempt to compete with Kawasaki's annual penis festival.

[Snake Plissken]

It seems to have been intended to be a sex or at least sex toy themed theme park.

Gives a whole new meaning to Pleasure Beach.

[Snake Plissken]

Although I almost went with Sex Flags Over Beijing.

[Ginger Yellow]

Evergrande is seriously scary

[ursus arctos]

[Ginger Yellow]

Also seriously scary, Wuhan has been "quarantined" (public transport only).

[Ginger Yellow]

Is this the beginning of the end for Evergrande?

[ursus arctos]

Fabio Cannavaro glances around with concern

[Ginger Yellow]

Things are definitely not looking good for Evergrande.

[The Awesome Berbaslug!!!]

https://www.theguardian.com/world/20...bt-share-slump

Just how bad is this? Are we talking archduke franz ferdinand levels of bad? Or can the power of totalitarianism, and dubious statistics save the day?

[ursus arctos]

It ain't good, but mass mobilisation followed worldwide killing spree seems an unlikely outcome

[Ginger Yellow]

I'm actually less scared about it than I was when I first posted about it upthread, as the bubble has already been burst to a large extent so this isn't likely to be such a huge market shock. Still not going to be good though.

[ursus arctos]

https://twitter.com/hushuo/status/1437454180642328580?s=21

[Ginger Yellow]

Fantasia has defaulted on a principal payment now