On this page the following entries were made in the “Economy” category.
Archive for “Economy”
Robert Moses Would Love Beijing’s Shunyi
Were it not for Robert Moses, America probably still would have had suburbs in the modern sense. However, the idea of a rich city outskirt, and the ‘white flight’ that it spurred, certainly came about sooner because of the NY legend. When I went out to Beijing’s upscale Shunyi suburb, it immediately flashed into my [...]
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David Brooks Knows China (Circa 1997)
I’ll admit it: When I saw that David Brooks wrote a column about China today, I expected to hear the same silliness that I’ve seen from other journalists. I was prepared to be underwhelmed. Fortunately he did not claim that the world is flat, or that China is a time bomb waiting to explode. [...]
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Grabbing at Receipts
The Chinese tax system has driven me to resemble a bag women, grabbing at scraps, just to save a few kuai here and there. You’ve surely seen this epidemic, and maybe are ever part of it. The government allows companies to provide up to 40% of income to employees as living/housing stipends , which [...]
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The Ends of Beijing
The Beijing subway map has always been interesting to me. Line one reaches tantalizingly far west, while line eight [correction: batong xian], the extension of line one, goes right off the map into an unknown, unexplained land. It’s almost as if the city is saying, “Don’t worry, no one important lives out there. If you [...]
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China Should Forgive American Debt
I’m tired of all of the whining from poor African countries about their debt. Sure much of it was racked up under previous, corrupt rulers, or even colonial powers, but honestly, can’t they just dig their way out of it? Last year China forgave 1.3 billion dollars that 31 African countries owed Beijing. That works [...]
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Yi Jianlian Personifies China’s Contradiction
Yi Jianlian, a basketball player between 6′7″ and 7′ tall, between 16 and 24 years of age, is everything good, and everything bad about China. I can’t imagine one person summarizing an entire nation’s potential and possible peril more than this man.
Mr. Yi was chosen as a high lottery pick in this year’s NBA’s draft [...]
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China May Not Be An Economic Beast
The longer I spend in China, and the faster the country grows, the more skeptical I have become it can really dominate the international economy. Keep in mind I say this as someone with quite a bit of time and money invested in the country’s future. However, I cannot help but think that much of [...]
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Changing Jobs in China, Losing Competitiveness
Switching jobs this week has gotten me thinking about about just how short stints at one company tend to be in China. I always find it amazing the amount of job hopping people do, and how much it must cost in lost GDP. Rarely have I seen employees spend more than three years in a [...]
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