Not to shill too hard but was recently in Northern china for a month, mixture of Tier 1 and Tier 2 cities (including cities in major decline [1]).
A lot of folks say China is decades in the future, this is not my belief. They are ahead in some major areas for sure but in other areas they are still a developing nation. China just does it's own thing and doesn't concern itself too much with the whims and concerns of the west.
One thing was abundantly clear however, China does not suffer from financially engineered Baumols disease. It was incredibly refreshing to spend time in a "functioning" society. Housing abundance, cheap EVs / public transport, great services, lively small businesses etc (no abandoned high streets).
If I were to guess this is probably because productivity growth so far has been able to keep up with the expansion of money supply. Where as the west tried to print itself out of structural deflation with a decade of ZIRP/QE. How do you avoid deflation in an aging society? Is it even avoidable? I guess we'll find out [2].
A lot of folks say China is decades in the future, this is not my belief. They are ahead in some major areas for sure but in other areas they are still a developing nation. China just does it's own thing and doesn't concern itself too much with the whims and concerns of the west.
One thing was abundantly clear however, China does not suffer from financially engineered Baumols disease. It was incredibly refreshing to spend time in a "functioning" society. Housing abundance, cheap EVs / public transport, great services, lively small businesses etc (no abandoned high streets).
If I were to guess this is probably because productivity growth so far has been able to keep up with the expansion of money supply. Where as the west tried to print itself out of structural deflation with a decade of ZIRP/QE. How do you avoid deflation in an aging society? Is it even avoidable? I guess we'll find out [2].
1. https://www.scmp.com/economy/china-economy/article/3133397/c...
2. https://www.wsj.com/world/china/china-xi-debt-economic-plan-...