China update

U.S. Officials Don't Get It, We're At Economic War With China:

Wars between major countries are no longer fought on the high seas, or on land with vast armies, but in board rooms and markets. It’s now economic warfare that threatens to alter the global landscape, enriching the winners and creating hardship for losers.

It’s no longer about which country has the largest navy or nuclear arsenal. It’s about which country can win the economic battles.

Someone needs to inform Congress and the Federal Reserve, since they rarely mention China’s oncoming juggernaut. Congress is currently in a contentious debate over the U.S. defense budget, making sure the country can handle the types of war that threatened it in the 1980s. It's deciding whether to cut spending on military hardware or increase it, to build more F-22 fighter planes and aircraft carriers, or to spend more on unmanned drones and beefed-up ground forces.

Chinese I.P.O. Frenzy Raises Talk of a Bubble:

Last week, shares of Youku, called the YouTube of China, rose 161 percent in the first day of trading on the New York Stock Exchange.

E-commerce China Dangdang, an online retailer heralded as the Chinese Amazon.com, popped 87 percent after its initial public offering the same day.

The Internet content provider ChinaCache International Holdings rose 95 percent in the day after its Nasdaq debut in October.

But investors’ giddiness over the tech upstarts — and the dozens of other Chinese companies that have gone public in the United States in recent months — has somewondering whether this boom has the makings of a bubble.

“If these I.P.O.’s continue to work, they’ll play them until the merry-go-round stops,” said Scott Sweet, senior managing partner of the research firm IPO Boutique. “And when it stops, it will stop with little notice — and it will be nasty.”

 And Now Presenting: Amazing Satellite Images Of The Ghost Cities Of China:

The hottest market in the hottest economy in the world is Chinese real estate. The big question is how vulnerable is this market to a crash.

One red flag is the vast number of vacant homes spread through China, by some estimates up to 64 million vacant homes.

We've tracked down satellite photos of these unnerving places, based on a report from Forensic Asia Limited. They call it a clear sign of a bubble: "There’s city after city full of empty streets and vast government buildings, some in the most inhospitable locations. It is the modern equivalent of building pyramids. With 20 new cities being built every year, we hope to be able to expand our list going forward."