Falling housing prices, soaring inflation and an export market peering over the brink of what seems a cataclysmic abyss. If you've been following the economic news lately, you can be forgiven for being overwhelmed by the chorus of bearish voices crying out that now - at last - the time has come for the Chinese economy to pay penance for its years of impressive economic growth. Is this really the end of good times?

This week on Sinica, we're delighted to have Arthur Kroeber from Dragonomics and David Pierson from the Los Angeles Times in the studio with Kaiser Kuo. Our conversation starts with the falling real estate market before examining what is really happening on the ground in Wenzhou and with controversial local financing vehicles. If you've been concerned that Chinese economy is sick, this is the podcast that will put your thumb on the pulse of the nation. So crank up those headphones as we bring you another great episode of Sinica.

Enjoy Sinica but want a more convenient way to listen to the show than our flash player on Popup Chinese? Then why not subscribe via iTunes? To have your computer download new episodes as soon as they're released, select "Subscribe to Podcast" from the Advanced file menu, and provide the URL http://popupchinese.com/feeds/custom/sinica when prompted. And please consider yourself warmly invited to download the podcast as a standalone file as well.
 said on
December 3, 2011
The link for the standalone file is not working. This is how it should be:

http://data.popupchinese.com/1065/sinica-the-bears-are-back-in-town.mp3

 said on
December 3, 2011
@cjwalther,

Thanks for pointing this out. We've just fixed the link.

On an unrelated note, here are links to two of the pieces mentioned in the podcast as promised:

http://articles.latimes.com/2011/nov/28/business/la-fi-china-bears-20111128

http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/yu11/English
 said on
December 5, 2011
The Arthur Kroeber link is also incorrect. It should be:

http://www.dragonomics.net/

 said on
December 5, 2011
@choula09,

Thanks for the correction. Have just updated the write-up.

--david
Mark Lesson Studied