Graphic here
Couple of FT stories.
First one details how the Chinese government has decided to consolidate the steel industry "in a renewed campaign to save energy and reduce pollution." Beijing wants 10 mills to control 60% of production. Some industry analysts doubt the goals will be achieved.
My point: interesting how we assume that government bureaucrats in Beijing can figure this all out on their own, mandating the most efficient change. History says a bunch of guys sitting around the table aren't all that smart at directing entire industries.
But, of course, the Chinese are so different from past attempts at this, because . . . you know, they're Chinese! All inscrutable and such.
But it's weird how, when booms come, like the one detailed in the second story on housing, the Chinese are given to same grubby corruption that afflicts every other industry when government tries to do too much.
Meanwhile, the shortage of cheap housing is one of the reasons firing up workers at factories, leading to labor unrest.
But, of course, the Chinese bureaucrats are so amazingly clever in their all-knowiing mastery over the economy, it's like they've reinvented the whole universe (I'm told this often by all sorts of knowing and famous sorts in the US, so it must be true), so I'm certain they'll figure all that out in such a way as to propel the Chinese economy to the leading position in the world! Because, again, if a bunch of guys sitting around a table in Beijing want that, then surely it can be done.
Maybe if we just lured some of their geniuses over to our side, we could set up a table in DC and then vault past the Chinese--just like that!
It's really all so simple, when you think of it. Get a table, some Chinese guys, and then rule the world. It's just so stupid that nobody thought of this before now.