links for 2010-07-07

Ex-IMF economists predicts gloom for China property Reuters in Beijing 12:28pm, Jul 06, 2010 The mainland’s property market is beginning a collapse that will hit the banking system, Harvard University economics Kenneth Rogoff told Bloomberg Television. Property transactions have dropped and prices are stagnating in the wake of steps in recent months by the central government to cool the market. Xu Shaoshi, minister of land and resources, said at the weekend that he expected prices to start falling within a few months. “You’re starting to see that collapse in property and it’s going to hit the banking system,” Rogoff, a former chief economist at the International Monetary Fund, told the agency. Not everyone agrees. Because home owners must make a downpayment of at least 20 per cent and many pay entirely in cash, there is relatively little leverage in the mainland’s property market. ...

Communism and the financial crisis, cartoon edition