ARTICLE: "In India, the Path To Growth Hits Roadblock: Slums; Huge Squatter Settlements Hem In Development Sites; A Potent Political Force," by John Larkin and Eric Bellman, Wall Street Journal, 17 March 2006, p. A1.

ARTICLE: "Chinese Regulator Lacks Enforcement Power to Close Polluters," by Rebecca Blumenstein, Wall Street Journal, 17 March 2006, p. A6.

Doesn't get any more real that the limits imposed by impoverished squatters. I remember driving around Mumbai back in 2001: fantastic development right next to vast squalor. Same deal basically holds in China, where it's the inability to sell or properly value rural land that leads local party bosses to reclassify the land and speculate on that basis.

Nasty stuff that gets you peasant revolts, so the caboose braking is quite similar in both countries, despite the political differences.

But it is true that China lacks far more functional capabilities for processing such demands from the caboose population. When the main enforcer of pollution regs says he's not empowered nearly enough, you know the Communist Party is headed into new territory. To empower this guy is to standardize the regs, making them transparent. Once transparent, other rural areas will demand similar enforcement. Pretty soon it's the law that matters more than the Party.

Until then, the caboose braking by the rural poor will only increase.

Sean: I think we need a glossary entry for "caboose braking," no?