Why doesn't the China bubble pop? A conversation with Bloomberg’s chief economist, Tom Orlik

This week on Sinica, Kaiser chats with Bloomberg’s chief economist, Tom Orlik, about his new book, China: The Bubble That Never Pops. A longtime resident of Beijing, Tom wrote for the Wall Street Journal before joining Bloomberg as chief Asia economist. His book argues that Beijing's leaders have learned valuable lessons from their own history and from the experiences of other countries, and applied them well to China's own economy.

5:33: The bears have it wrong on China

10:08: Debt obligations and local government finance

18:29: What the Chinese leadership has learned, and what it hasn’t

30:21: Shadow loans, and the shadow banking sector

47:42: The tools that China’s central banks have to deal with risk

Recommendations:

Tom: China’s Unfinished Economic Revolution, by Nicholas R. Lardy, and The Story of the Stone, or The Dream of the Red Chamber, Vol. 1: The Golden Days, by Cáo Xuěqín 曹雪芹, translated by David Hawkes.

Kaiser: The 2010 Chinese television series Three Kingdoms.

This podcast was edited and produced by Kaiser Kuo and Jason MacRonald.

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