Spooked by a sharply slowing economy, China’s leaders have begun opening the financial spigots

The Chinese government is dumping more stimulus money into their economy. But not nearly as much as they just 3 or 4 years back. That money had little effect, other than the construction of a multitude of Ghost Cities.


Maybe they can sell these Ghost Cities off to reclusive millionaires.


From the New York Times:

Spooked by a sharply slowing economy,China’s leaders have begun opening the financial spigots to build still more roads and airports and subsidize consumer purchases, reprising measures that enabled the nation to sail mostly unscathed through the last great global recession.

But the leaders are signaling that the latest round of stimulus spending will fall far short of the four trillion renminbi, or $585 billion at the time, that the government poured into the economy in 2008 and 2009. That spurred a torrent of bank lending, part of it for dubious projects that many experts say will wind up bankrupt in coming years.

The government has made no formal announcement of a stimulus program, and an article in Wednesday’s People’s Daily, the Communist Party’s leading newspaper, quoted leading Chinese economists as suggesting that any efforts to bolster growth are likely to be measured. Markets fell on Wednesday after the article and other news from Beijing indicated that China’s planners remained cautious about engaging in a huge additional stimulus program.

If it didn't work three years ago, why would it work now, when things are even worse?