|
Chinese officials and government economists have warned domestic banks to tighten their mortgage lending criteria after the US government's action to prop up Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the giant mortgage agencies.
Liu Mingkang, China's top banking regulator, has in recent days urged the country's state-owned commercial banks to beware of risks in the real estate sector and ordered them to tighten loan approval processes.
Others among China's policy community have also begun to express concerns about the health of the country's banks amid signs a once-booming property sector has begun to slow.
Average house prices in China's 70 largest cities were up 10.2 per cent from a year earlier by the end of June, according to official figures. But sales volumes in important cities, including Shanghai, Beijing and Shenzhen, have fallen precipitously in recent months. Some analysts fear steep price falls ahead.
"If financial institutions of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae's calibre could get into such a bad situation, then what does that mean for Chinese financial institutions?" asked Yi Xianrong, a prominent economist at the China Academy of Social Sciences. "The only reason we haven't seen similar problems here is because property prices have continued to rise rapidly."
Lending standards at Chinese banks are often much looser than in developed countries, in part because China is still in the early stages of building a credit rating system. "Anyone can get a mortgage loan in China, no matter who they are," Mr Yi told the Financial Times. "There is also a huge amount of speculation in the market and insider dealing when it comes to bank officers granting loans."
Changing the climate or the balance of power?
The main headline from the recent G-8 summit in Tokyo was that the major industrial nations agreed to reduce by half their greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, if the developing nations were also part of any new international climate control effort. The G-8 members are United States, Japan, Russia, Canada, Italy, Germany, France and Britain. Environmentalists were correct to claim that setting such a long time horizon was meaningless, but the real issue is the inclusion of the developing countries in a balanced approach since that question will dominate any short-term efforts made along the way towards the mid-century goal.
The Bush Administration has been adamant that the major rising economies join any international environmental effort, since any campaign to slow economic growth that only affects some countries will work to the competitive advantage of those still rolling ahead unencumbered by "green" restraints. Industries forced out of the United States will seek haven in lands that are friendlier. This transfer of wealth, jobs and capacity has already been taking place as a result of asymmetrical trade policies, and would be accelerated by new environmental regulations. Yet, the final joint G-8 statement still held countries to different standards by claiming, "We recognize that what the major developed economies do will differ from what major developing economies do, consistent with the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities."
Even with this large loophole, the developing countries objected. China, India, Brazil, Mexico and South Africa (known as the Group of 5), who together represent 42% of the world's population - issued a statement declaring their split with the G-8. They rejected the notion that all should share in the 50% target, asserting that the wealthier countries have created most of the alleged environmental damage. "It is essential that developed countries take the lead in achieving ambitious and absolute greenhouse gas emissions reductions," said the statement.
Chinese President Hu Jintao went a step further in separate remarks. While acknowledging that developing nations must act, he said "China's central task now is to develop the economy and make life better for the people," adding that "China's per capita emission is relatively low." This last statement is true only because as rapid as Chinese development has been, it has not yet reached even half of its 1.3 billion people. Per unit of output, Chinese emissions are among the highest in the world. According to the OECD, China's carbon-dioxide emissions per unit of output are five times greater than America's.
A different kind of surge
By Andrew Breitbart, The Washington Times
While conservatives own an ironclad argument that Hollywood discriminates against our kind, we are certainly not blameless for the predicament.
The most frequent snipe thrown our way by industry stalwarts and Huffington Post bloggers (when presented with the overwhelming evidence that the entertainment industry tilts dangerously to the left) is to say that we sound whiny.
The truth hurts.
The victim card - liberalism's reliable ace in the hole - is not a winning ploy for conservatives who want to make inroads in Hollywood. David Geffen certainly owes it to no one to produce work that runs contrary to his point of view. Until artists and entrepreneurs work together to make a stream of successful products openly rebelling against the status quo, then the game isn't even on.
When conservative icon Paul Weyrich wrote in 1999, "we probably have lost the culture war," he was grossly mistaken. We never fought it.
The new reality in Iraq
All of the most important objectives of the surge have been accomplished in Iraq. The sectarian civil war is ended; al Qaeda in Iraq (AQI) has been dealt a devastating blow; and the Sadrist militia and other Iranian-backed militant groups have been disrupted.
Meanwhile, the Iraqi government has accomplished almost all of the legislative benchmarks set by the U.S. Congress and the Bush administration. More important, it is gaining wider legitimacy among the population. The attention of Iraqis across the country is focused on the upcoming provincial elections, which will be a pivotal moment in Iraq's development.
The result is that we have an extraordinary – but fleeting – opportunity to advance America's security and the stability of a vital region of the world.
As far as the civil war is concerned, there have been virtually no sectarian killings recorded for the past 10 weeks. Violence is still perpetrated by organized groups, but AQI, the remnant Sunni insurgents and Shiite fighters are now focused on attacking their own members who have defected to our side. This is a measure of their weakness. The Iraqi population is increasingly mobilizing against the perpetrators of violence, flooding American and Iraqi forces with tips about the locations of weapons caches and key militant leaders – Sunnis turning in Sunnis and Shia turning in Shia.
|
