[—Editors note: this podcast was recorded on January 18, 2016]
With equity markets in free fall, housing prices skipping downwards, foreign reserves plummeting, and industrial production on a road trip back to the last decade, it’s no surprise permabears like Gordan Chang are stocking up on popcorn to bask in what they see as the long-due collapse of the Chinese economy. It all raises the question of how bad things are going to get, which leads to the question of how bad they are right now.
Joining Kaiser, Jeremy, and David in the studio today to talk about the Chinese economy and its recent tailspin is none other than Tom Orlik, an economist at Bloomberg and author of the book Understanding China’s Economic Indicators. Tom has years of experience writing about China and joins to share his thoughts on what parts of the economy are doing decently and where the real problems lie. We hope you love the show.
Recommendations
- “A People’s Friendship,” by James Palmer, ChinaFile, January 2016
- Billionaires: Reflections on the Upper Crust, by Darrell M. West (Brookings Institution Press, 2014)
- Mass Flourishing: How Grassroots Innovation Created Jobs, Challenge, and Change, by Edmund S. Phelps (Princeton University Press, 2015)
- “New Koch,” by Jane Moyer, The New Yorker, Jaunary 25, 2016
- Outside Over There, by Maurice Sendak (HarperCollins, 1989)
- The Adventures of Augie March, by Saul Bellow (Penguin Classics, October 2006)