joi, 24 februarie 2011

Preparing for The Death of RSS Graywolf's SEO Blog

Preparing for The Death of RSS Graywolf's SEO Blog


Preparing for The Death of RSS

Posted: 24 Feb 2011 07:18 AM PST

Post image for Preparing for The Death of RSS

While I personally am a big fan of RSS, I stand by my position that RSS is not being adopted by the mainstream population (see the big fat RSS lie) and is therefore a dying technology.

There have been numerous articles about RSS being dead or not. Feel free to engage in the debate if you want. I’m looking at two things: 1. search volume for the term RSS

RSS Search Volume

and 2. where that RSS search volume is concentrated in big, technology-centric metros.

RSS Search Concentration

If your audience is a bunch of  web 2.0 techno weenies who think that getting on the front page of Techmeme is important, then keep following your RSS dream. If that isn’t your audience, then it’s time to start looking at alternatives.

President Obama Speaks on the Turmoil in Libya: "This Violence Must Stop"

The White House Your Daily Snapshot for
Thursday, Feb. 24,  2011
 

Photo of the Day

President Barack Obama meets with Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and National Security Advisor Tom Donilon in the Oval Office, Feb. 23, 2011. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

In Case You Missed It

Here are some of the top stories from the White House blog.

President Obama Speaks on the Turmoil in Libya: "This Violence Must Stop"
The President says the violence in Libya is "outrageous" and "unacceptable," and that his Administration is looking at the "full range of options we have to respond to this crisis."

What I Heard from Small Businesses Through Advise the Advisor
Austan Goolsbee, Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers, responds to feedback from small business owners and entrepreneurs across the country.

Commencement Challenge Deadline Extended to March 11 – Have You Applied Yet?
The deadline for the Race to the Top Commencement Challenge has been extended to March 11, 2011, and applying is easy. Don't miss your chance to have President Obama deliver your commencement address!

Today's Schedule

All times are Eastern Standard Time (EST).

9:30 AM: The President receives the Presidential Daily Briefing

10:00 AM: The President meets with senior advisors

10:45 AM: The Vice President and Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis meet with President of the AFL-CIO Richard Trumka and presidents of AFL-CIO labor organizations

1:00 PM: Briefing by Press Secretary Jay Carney WhiteHouse.gov/live

1:30 PM: The Sound of Young America: The History of Motown WhiteHouse.gov/live

1:45 PM: The President holds a meeting with the President’s Council on Jobs and Competitiveness WhiteHouse.gov/live

3:00 PM: The President meets with Secretary of the Treasury Geithner

4:00 PM: The Vice President delivers remarks at an event honoring the life and legacy of Tom Lantos WhiteHouse.gov/live (audio only)

7:15 PM: The President and the First Lady host music legends and contemporary major artists for “The Motown Sound: In Performance at the White House”; the Vice President and Dr. Biden will also attend WhiteHouse.gov/live

WhiteHouse.gov/live  Indicates events that will be live streamed on White House.com/Live.

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Seth's Blog : An atomic theory of business size

[You're getting this note because you subscribed to Seth Godin's blog.]

An atomic theory of business size

The magic of the periodic table is that every atom is one thing or another--there isn't a stable element that's sort of oxygen and sort of nitrogen. If there were, there would be millions of elements, not a few hundred.

That's because electrons are (more or less) either here or there. The quantum levels ensure that there are no weird hybrids.

A business follows a similar model. A local mom and pop store is just the right size for mom and for pop. The rent is low enough for the two of them to cover it. It's stable. They can't afford a $200,000 a year CFO. It wouldn't be a stable situation.

This is backwards but here you go: businesses that exist exist because the marketplace allows them to function at the right size. There were a lot of bowling alleys in the 1960s because the number of people you needed to run one plus the rent was just covered by the revenue you could expect. There was a right size, one that people were willing to take on and run.

The next level up from Mom and Pop feels different. Different furnishings, different rent, different payroll. It's not a little bigger, it's a whole quantum level different. And then down the street is the chain store, the one with 40 outlets and regional vice presidents and regional newspaper ads. Those things naturally go together, the scale is right.

Rightsizing your business is one of the most important decisions you can make. Just because you're thriving at one scale doesn't mean that a little more effort or a little more investment magically take you to the next. They probably don't.

Want to sell your popular donuts at Whole Foods? That's a quantum leap, not an incremental step.

Want your auction software company to become a public behemoth? It requires a leap of size and commitment, not a gradual creep.

Want to go from freelance work as a programmer to running a business like Fog Creek Software? Totally different list of requirements.

This is actually a good thing. It's good because rightsizing allows you to be profitable and live as a human. Those chasms in between are where people fall down.

One of the side effects of the internet revolution is that several new stable business sizes appeared. Groupon can do a billion dollars in revenue nationwide with far, far fewer employees than it took Target to hit the same level. A solo author can reach more people and generate more impact than she ever could have a dozen years ago.

These new sizes don't mean that the rules of quantum scale have gone away, though. That popular self-published author might be able to successfully employ six people, but there's no way she magically scales to sixty without something else changing. Several times I've run businesses that the market liked but couldn't find the right scale... adding more people didn't add a significant enough amount of revenue, and fewer people would have cost us our customer base. Just because it's a good idea doesn't mean that there's a scale that works.

When in pain, consider your scale. When you're too big or too small for the revenue or the impact you seek, you'll feel it in your bones. Leap.

 
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miercuri, 23 februarie 2011

Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis

Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis


Obama Seeks $20 Billion in Civil Fines, Money to be Used for Loan Modifications; How Far would the Money Go?

Posted: 23 Feb 2011 10:39 PM PST

The Wall Street Journal reports U.S. Pushes Mortgage Deal
The Obama administration is trying to push through a settlement over mortgage-servicing breakdowns that could force America's largest banks to pay for reductions in loan principal worth billions of dollars.

Terms of the administration's proposal include a commitment from mortgage servicers to reduce the loan balances of troubled borrowers who owe more than their homes are worth, people familiar with the matter said. The cost of those writedowns won't be borne by investors who purchased mortgage-backed securities, these people said.

If a unified settlement can be reached, some state attorneys general and federal agencies are pushing for banks to pay more than $20 billion in civil fines or to fund a comparable amount of loan modifications for distressed borrowers, these people said.

But forging a comprehensive settlement may be difficult. A deal would have to win approval from federal regulators and state attorneys general, as well as some of the nation's largest mortgage servicers, including Bank of America Corp., Wells Fargo & Co, and J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. Those banks declined to comment.

A settlement could help lift a cloud of uncertainty that has stalled the foreclosure process since last fall. Economists have warned that foreclosures need to proceed for the housing market to continue on a path to recovery. It's unclear how many borrowers would benefit from a deal.

Under the administration's proposed settlement, banks would have to bear the cost of all writedowns rather than passing them on to other investors. The settlement proposal focuses on pushing servicers who mishandled foreclosure procedures to eat losses, by writing down loans that they service on behalf of clients. Those clients include mortgage-finance giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, as well as investors in loans that were securitized by Wall Street firms.
How Far would the Money Go?

Let's assume this proposal is adopted. How many would benefit? The answer of course depends on the criteria. However, but the goal seems to be to help those in distress, so let's use those currently in distress as a starting point.

Total Non-Current and Delinquent Loans



The above chart and following stats from the LPS Mortgage Monitor, January Observations

  • As of December 2010 there were 2,117,845 90+ day delinquent loans.
  • As of December 2010 there were 2,555,799 30-60 day delinquent loans.
  • As of December 2010 there were 2,195,940 in foreclosure.
  • As of December 2010 there were 2,195,940 in total non-current loans

Those in foreclosure are clearly too far gone to help. If we take $20 billion and spread it out over the rest, we can calculate mortgage principal reductions several ways.

  • $20 billion divided by 2,555,799 would give everyone 30-60 days late a principal reduction of $7,825
  • $20 billion divided by 2,118,845 would give everyone 90+ days late a principal reduction of $9,439
  • $20 billion divided by both groups would give everyone a principal reduction of $4,278

This is supposed to help?

By the way, history suggests once someone gets to 90+ days late, the situation is hopeless. Even if the $20 billion was entirely thrown at those 30-60 days late, we are talking about principal reductions of under $8,000.

The moral of this story is $20 billion isn't what it used to be.

Mike "Mish" Shedlock
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com
Click Here To Scroll Thru My Recent Post List


Providence School Superintendent to Send Dismissal Notices to All 1,926 Teachers; Providence is Bankrupt

Posted: 23 Feb 2011 06:32 PM PST

Providence Rhode Island school district has a huge budget shortfall of $40 million. It does not know how many teachers it will need to layoff so instead, Providence plans to pink slip all teachers.
The school district plans to send out dismissal notices to every one of its 1,926 teachers, an unprecedented move that has union leaders up in arms.

In a letter sent to all teachers Tuesday, Supt. Tom Brady wrote that the Providence School Board on Thursday will vote on a resolution to dismiss every teacher, effective the last day of school.

In an e-mail sent to all teachers and School Department staff, Brady said, "We are forced to take this precautionary action by the March 1 deadline given the dire budget outline for the 2011-2012 school year in which we are projecting a near $40 million deficit for the district," Brady wrote. "Since the full extent of the potential cuts to the school budget have yet to be determined, issuing a dismissal letter to all teachers was necessary to give the mayor, the School Board and the district maximum flexibility to consider every cost savings option, including reductions in staff." State law requires that teachers be notified about potential changes to their employment status by March 1.

"To be clear about what this means," Brady wrote, "this action gives the School Board the right to dismiss teachers as necessary, but not all teachers will actually be dismissed at the end of the school year."

"This is beyond insane," Providence Teachers Union President Steve Smith said Tuesday night. "Let's create the most chaos and the highest level of anxiety in a district where teachers are already under unbelievable stress. Now I know how the United States State Department felt on Dec. 7 , 1941." That was the day the Japanese government bombed Pearl Harbor.

Smith, who has forged a groundbreaking collaboration with Brady that has received national recognition, said he believes this move comes directly from Mayor Angel Taveras, not the School Department. In a conversation with Taveras earlier Tuesday, Smith said the mayor also hinted at school closings but didn't elaborate.

Providence is facing a daunting budget crisis. The city had a $57-million deficit last year and expects a higher figure for the year ending June 30. In addition, the city, under then-Mayor David N. Cicilline, nearly depleted its reserves to cover day-to-day expenses. Taveras is currently awaiting completion of a report by an independent panel, which he commissioned to get a better handle on the city's financial situation.
Commendable Action

Sending out notices to all teachers is exactly the correct approach. Until contracts are negotiated, no one knows the exact number.

In reality, no teachers have to be let go. All the teachers have to do is agree to wage and benefit concessions that will save every job. They will not do that, so the mayor has no choice.

Hopefully the mayor will play similar hardball with police and fire unions as well. However, the best approach is for the city to declare bankruptcy and get it done with. Then the city could set, not negotiate, haircuts on benefits and salaries.

The problem is Rhode Island does not have a statute authorizing towns to use federal bankruptcy court.

Central Falls

Central Falls is another Rhode Island bankrupt city. I have talked about Central Falls a number of times. Please consider Receiver to city: Financial ruin near
CENTRAL FALLS — The city's financial problems are so profound that the only way to solve them is through a merger with Pawtucket or a regionalization of city services, the state-appointed receiver said in a report Thursday to the Carcieri administration.

"Central Falls, in my judgment, cannot remain a stand-alone community as it presently is, unless the state wants to subsidize this into the future," said retired Superior Court judge Mark A. Pfeiffer, the man appointed by the state Department of Administration in July to run the city, with elected government officials in advisory roles, after those officials had earlier declared the city insolvent. ...
Massive Teacher Absenteeism at Central Falls High School

Check out the morally corrupt Central Falls Teachers union: Central Falls teacher absences still on the rise
Since the school year started Sept. 1, there has not been a single day when all of the 88 teachers at Central Falls High School have shown up for work.

On that first day, two teachers called in sick and a third took a personal day.

And there have been only five days — all in September — when administrators were able to replace all the missing teachers with substitutes.

Last week alone, there were at least 19 teachers out every day, 10 to 13 of whom called in sick each day.

The severity of the problem came to light last week when The Journal reported that more than half of the high school's 840 students didn't receive a grade in one or more classes for the first quarter.

The school's leaders, Deputy Supt. Victor Capellan and co-principals Evelyn Cosme-Jones and Sonn Sam, said 453 students did not receive solid instruction in several classes, and therefore no grade could be given.

Since Nov. 12, there have been at least 20 teachers missing or absent at the high school each Friday. Starting Oct. 21, there were 14 to 19 teachers absent daily for seven straight days. And 453 of the 840 students at Central Falls High School didn't receive enough instruction this fall to earn a grade in at least one class.
New receiver named for distressed Rhode Island city

Finally, please consider this January 31, 2011 update on Central Falls:New receiver named for distressed Rhode Island city
A former Rhode Island Supreme Court judge has been named as receiver for the tiny, financially distressed city of Central Falls, Rhode Island, Governor Lincoln Chafee said on Monday.

Robert Flanders will replace Mark Pfeiffer, who has served as receiver since the city was taken under state government control last July. The exact date of the transition has not yet been decided, a Chafee spokesman said.

Central Falls, a city of 1.5 square miles with a population of 19,000 and an annual budget of $16.8 million, has an unfunded liability for its pension plans and retiree health care benefits totaling $80 million, Pfeiffer said in a report last month.

He warned the city might need to turn to a rarely used Chapter 9 municipal bankruptcy if major fiscal reforms are not implemented. Notwithstanding this comment, it is not clear whether the city is eligible to file for Chapter 9 as Rhode Island is one of about 25 states that do not have a statute authorizing its towns to use federal bankruptcy court.

In California, which has such a statute, several entities have filed for bankruptcy in the past two decades, including the city of Vallejo in 2008 and Orange County in 1994.
Providence and Central Falls are Bankrupt

The first step in fixing any problem is admitting what the problem is. This problem is plain to see whether anyone admits it or not. Providence and Central Fall are bankrupt.

Wages and pension benefits have been promised that cannot be met. The only way out for those cities is bankruptcy.

For a second time I make my plea for governor Lincoln D. Chaffee, an independent, to ask the legislature to allow bankruptcies. It is the only hope for Central Falls and more importantly, Providence.

Mike "Mish" Shedlock
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com
Click Here To Scroll Thru My Recent Post List


Qaddafi Digs In; Uprising Heads Towards Decisive Stage; Simmering Anarchy, Then What?

Posted: 23 Feb 2011 02:12 PM PST

I suspect it will be all over for Colonel Qaddafi within days. What happens to the Libya itself will take much longer to sort out.

Please consider Mercenaries Stream Toward Tripoli as Qaddafi Digs In
Thousands of African mercenaries and militiamen were massing on roads heading toward Tripoli on Wednesday to reinforce the stronghold of Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi as rebels protesting his 40-year rule claimed to have taken control of cities closer to the capital, witnesses said.

The week-old uprising that has swept Libya now appears headed for a decisive stage, with Colonel Qaddafi fortifying his bastion in Tripoli and opponents in the capital saying they were making plans for their first coordinated protest.

"A message comes to every mobile phone about a general protest on Friday in Tripoli," one resident there said, adding that Colonel Qaddafi's menacing speech to the country on Tuesday had increased their determination "100 percent."

The looming signs of a new confrontation came as a growing number of Libyan military officers and officials said Wednesday that they had broken with Colonel Qaddafi over his intentions to bomb and kill Libyan civilians challenging him.

For the first time there were reports of protests in the southern city of Sabha, considered a Qaddafi stronghold.

The country's long-serving interior minister, Gen. Abdel Fattah Younes al-Abidi, said Wednesday that he had decided to resign after the people of Benghazi were shot down with machine guns.

[In Tripoli] Witnesses said groups of heavily armed militiamen and mercenaries from other African countries cruised the streets in pickups, spraying crowds with machine-gun fire and then carting away bodies in vans. On Wednesday, a resident said mercenaries were still roaming the city and enforcing a reign of terror.

"All the government buildings in Tripoli are burned down," the resident said. "But the mercenaries, they have weapons. The Libyans don't have weapons. They will kill you."

Colonel Qaddafi's security forces have made no effort yet to take back the growing number of towns in the east that have in effect declared their independence and set up informal opposition governments. For now, in broad parts of the country, there was little indication of what would replace the vacuum left by Colonel Qaddafi's authority other than simmering anarchy.
Towns Slip From Qaddafi's Control

The New York Times has a interesting 13-image slide show of cites no longer in Qaddafi's Control. Here are a few images.

A growing number of towns in Libya's east have in effect declared their independence from Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi's rule and set up informal opposition governments. In Tobruk, an eastern city that joined the uprising almost as soon as it began, members of the Libyan opposition chanted victory slogans.

Credit: Ed Ou for The New York Times



Libyan youths chanted antigovernment slogans in Tobruk. Colonel Qaddafi's four decades of idiosyncratic one-man rule have left the country without any national institutions that could provide the framework for a transitional government.

Credit: Scott Nelson for The New York Times



Libyan youths held pictures of people they celebrated as martyrs during protests in Tobruk. Residents of Tobruk said neighboring cities — including Dernah, Al Qubaa, Bayda and El Marij — were effectively ruled by the opposition.

Credit: Scott Nelson for The New York Times



A Libyan boy wore a looted uniform of Colonel Qaddafi's security forces during nighttime protests in Tobruk.

Credit: Scott Nelson for The New York Times
A tip of the hat to Scott Nelson and Ed Ou for those images

TimesCast Libya



After the Anarchy

Here is one of the image captions for further consideration: "Colonel Qaddafi's four decades of idiosyncratic one-man rule have left the country without any national institutions that could provide the framework for a transitional government."

Moreover, and unlike Egypt whose army was generally well-liked and in support of the Egyptian citizens, the Libyan army has splintered into groups loyal to various cities, and one group loyal to Qaddafi. Even with an assumption that Qaddafi's rein of terror is measured in days, sorting out a transition government and dealing with terrorists will not be as easy as it was in Egypt.

Mike "Mish" Shedlock
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com
Click Here To Scroll Thru My Recent Post List


Reflections on Revolutions, Shoe Throwing, and the Failed Policy of Nation Building

Posted: 23 Feb 2011 10:35 AM PST

Libya Reacts to Qaddafi Speech

Please consider the following Youtube video of Libyans responding to one of Muammar el-Qaddafi's speeches. In case the video does not show, click on the preceding link.



Note the shoe throwing, or "Shoeing" as it is called. It is a sign of huge disrespect.



Flashback December 2008: Shoes thrown at Bush on Iraq trip
A surprise visit by US President George Bush to Iraq has been overshadowed by an incident in which two shoes were thrown at him during a news conference.

An Iraqi journalist was wrestled to the floor by security guards after he called Mr Bush "a dog" and threw his footwear, just missing the president.
These uprising prove many things

  1. US policy of "Nation Building" has been a total and complete failure.
  2. US had no business invading Iraq.
  3. It is up to the people of these nations, not outsiders to force change at gunpoint.
  4. US "intelligence" operations are useless.
  5. US "intelligence" failed to predict any of these uprisings. One likely cause is so much useless "intelligence data" is gathered both in the US and abroad that no one has time to look at it all.

Thankfully, and at long last, the citizens of many nations have taken matters into their own hands. Not all of these revolts will be viewed as a success to US interests. Some may not be viewed as a success by anyone.

However, the results in aggregate, no matter what they are, will be far better than results of successive, misguided US policy missions in Vietnam, Iraq, Iran, and Afghanistan.

Mike "Mish" Shedlock
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com
Click Here To Scroll Thru My Recent Post List


Speculation, Investment Scandals, Fraud, and China's Hard Landing; Miracle of Chinese High-Speed Rail will be Reduced to Dust; Peak Oil Doomsday Clock

Posted: 23 Feb 2011 02:33 AM PST

In President Obama's state of the union address, he hailed China's high-speed rail system. He should have waited. Serious questions regarding the safety and longevity of the system is now in question. One expert claims within five years, the "Chinese High-Speed Rail will be Reduced to Dust".

China has spent $750 billion on rail lines, much of it wasted.

The culprit is not design, but rather shoddy construction accompanied by fraud, greed, and unrealistic growth targets. If that sounds familiar, it's because it was one of the factors in the US housing bust, and indeed every huge bust in general.

Here are a couple of links on the high-speed rail lines I got from Michael Pettis at China Financial Markets.

'Judgment day' fears for high-speed rail tracks

South China Morning reports Judgment day' fears for high-speed rail tracks
Construction of the mainland's massive high-speed rail network is in danger of becoming a victim of its own success.

The breakneck speed at which track is being laid means engineers are likely to have to sacrifice quality for quantity on the lines' foundations which could ultimately halve their lifespan.

The problem lies in the use of high-quality fly ash, a fine powder chemically identical to volcanic ash, collected from the chimneys of coal-fired power plants. When mixed with cement and gravel, it can give the tracks' concrete base a lifespan of 100 years.

According to a study by the First Survey and Design Institute of China Railways in 2008, coal-fired power plants on the mainland could produce enough high-quality fly ash for the construction of 100 kilometres of high-speed railway tracks a year.

But more than 1,500 kilometres of track have been laid annually for the past five years. This year 4,500 kilometres of track will be laid with the completion of the world's longest high-speed railway line, between Beijing and Shanghai. Fly ash required for that 1,318-kilometre line would be more than that produced by all the coal-fired power plants in the world.

Enter low-quality fly ash.

Professor Wang Lan , lead scientist at the Cement and New Building Materials Research Institute under the China Building Materials Academy, said that given poor quality control on the mainland, the use of low-quality fly ash, and other low-grade construction materials, was "almost inevitable" in high-speed railway construction.

And that could have fatal consequences, Wang said. With a catalytic function almost opposite to that of good fly ash, the bad fly ash could significantly weaken railway line foundations and shorten a railway's lifespan by about half. That would mean China's high-speed rail tracks would last only 50 years.

Zhu Ming - a researcher at Southwest Jiaotoing University's School of Civil Engineering who experimented with fly ash at a Beijing-Shanghai high-speed railway construction site last year - was even more pessimistic.

The use of low-quality fly ash would threaten the safety of rail passengers and "judgment day" might come sooner than expected, Zhu said.

"Quality problems with Chinese high-speed railways will arise in five years," he said. "I'm not talking about small problems, but big problems. Small problems such as occasional cracks and slips that delay trains for hours have already occurred. Big problems that will postpone an entire line for days, if not weeks, will come soon.

"When that happens, the miracle of Chinese high-speed rail will be reduced to dust."
China Rail Chief's Firing Hints at Trouble

The New York Times reports China Rail Chief's Firing Hints at Trouble
In his seven years as chief of the Chinese Railways Ministry, Liu Zhijun built a commercial and political colossus that spanned continents and elevated the lowly train to a national symbol of pride and technological prowess.

His abrupt sacking by the Communist Party is casting that empire in a decidedly different light, raising doubts not only about Mr. Liu's stewardship and the corruption that dogs China's vast public-works projects, but also, perhaps, the safety, financial soundness and long-term viability of a rail system that has captured the world's attention.

Mr. Liu, 58, was fired Saturday and is being investigated by the party's disciplinary committee for "severe violations of discipline," a euphemism for corruption. His high government rank — minister-level officials are rarely fired under such a cloud — hints at far deeper dissatisfaction with one of China's most publicized and sweeping domestic initiatives.

Until last week, Mr. Liu had led China's program to lace the nation with nearly 8,100 miles of high-speed rail lines and to build more than 11,000 miles of traditional railroad lines. The sheer size and cost of the endeavor — the investment has been estimated at $750 billion, some $395 billion for high-speed rail alone — has led experts to compare it to the transcontinental railroad that opened the American West.

President Obama hailed China's program in his State of the Union address and called for the United States to move quickly on high-speed rail plans that had been repeatedly delayed by budget concerns and political infighting.

There are some clues in top officials' public statements since the scandal broke. Speaking on Monday in Beijing, the official who is believed to be the country's new railways chief, Sheng Guangzu, said the ministry would "place quality and safety at the center of construction projects." For good measure, he added that safety was his highest priority.

The statement underscored concerns in some quarters that Mr. Liu cut corners in his all-out push to extend the rail system and to keep the project on schedule and within its budget. No accidents have been reported on the high-speed rail network, but reports suggest that construction quality may at times have been shoddy.

Analysts have warned that the construction schedule ordered by Mr. Liu threatens to push the ministry's debt — already $170 billion last fall — to an unsustainable level.

A 2010 analysis by China Minsheng Bank, reported this week by Caijing, found that the ministry's debts equaled 56 percent of its assets and could reach $455 billion, or 70 percent of its assets, by 2020. In his last months on the job, Mr. Liu had begun an aggressive program to deal with the debt by selling stakes in the railway to investors like large state-controlled banks.

The Minsheng report suggested that the high-speed network may remain a money-loser for the next 20 years, despite heavy use. Ticket prices — several times those for a conventional train — have led to a backlash among some Chinese.

The timing of Mr. Liu's dismissal may be significant: He was fired at the end of China's Lunar New Year holiday, when trains are jammed, tickets are scalped at exorbitant prices and passengers are angriest.

The Communist Party has long worried that corruption may undermine its credibility with the public. But outside analysts agree that high-level officials are seldom sacked for corruption alone, in part because kickbacks, favoritism and other below-board activities are so common.

Russell Leigh Moses, a scholar of the Chinese leadership, said that Mr. Liu's dismissal could signal disquiet over whether expansion of the rail system had gone too far, too fast.

"You don't take someone down at that level of status unless they've done something really egregious," said Mr. Moses, who works in Beijing. "I don't know whether it's politics or policy. But I wouldn't rule out the second."
China's Vacant Cities

China's problems go far beyond high-speed rail, to construction and malinvestment in general.

I have talked about China's Vacant cities before but here is a quick recap from Chinese Bank Lending Spree Continues; $75 Billion New Loans First Week in January Alone; Inflation Gone Amuck
In case you missed it, please consider Amazing Satellite Images Of The Ghost Cities Of China on the Business Insider.
"There's city after city full of empty streets and vast government buildings, some in the most inhospitable locations. It is the modern equivalent of building pyramids. With 20 new cities being built every year, we hope to be able to expand our list going forward."
More Vacant China City Stories


China property bubble will overheat until it implodes. In the meantime, regardless of what China reports on the CPI, inflation remains a huge problem. Once again, those looking for inflation can find it in China, not the US, where consumer credit is contracting.
Long Sharp Slowdown or Economic Collapse?

Inquiring minds are wondering if these malinvestment schemes mean China will suffer an economic collapse. While not a China bull, Michael Pettis makes a case for a long period of sub-par growth rather than an outright economic collapse.

Here is a snip from his latest 13-page newsletter (subscription) , by permission. I added the subtitles in red, black headlines are original. Michael Pettis writes..
Optimist Case for China

Optimists argue that China has far less infrastructure, including high-speed railroads, for its size and population than countries like Japan, and so it will take years of building before we have to worry about excess infrastructure investment. They claim that the externalities associated with expanding the rail network are so high that in spite of the huge costs they nonetheless make economic sense for China, especially over the longer term as productivity rises.

Pessimist Case for China

Pessimists argue that with costs of capital set so artificially low and with tremendous near-term pressure on local policymakers to promote large infrastructure spending, there is an incentive for policymakers to misallocate capital, and when there are incentives to waste money, money tends to get wasted.

I am in the pessimist camp. Not only do I believe that the combination of very low cost of capital, socialized credit risks, and strong short-term political incentives to fund massive projects always leads to capital misallocation, but I also believe that the explosion in NPLs [Non-Performing Loans] a decade ago, and the fact that total SOE [State Owned Enterprise] profits are just a fraction of the interest rate subsidy they receive, is strong evidence that misallocated capital has long been a serious problem in China.

Collapse?

I realize that there is always the possibility that this time really is different, but the constellation of factors – rapid credit expansion, cheap capital, incentives to ignore risk, large-scale fraud – is striking. It is rare to see all of these things come together without a serious correction following, although of course it is folly to try to time it. All we can say is that the later the correction comes, the deeper it tends to be.

By the way this is not to say that China is about to collapse into crisis. I've noticed over the past two years that a lot of commentators in China and abroad are citing me or my arguments in support of their own claims that China is about to collapse, but although I have been very skeptical of the growth story here for many years, I have never argued that China would collapse. On the contrary.

In my opinion, a financial collapse requires specific balance sheet structures in which inverted liabilities (i.e. the opposite of hedged) are combined with self-reinforcing mechanisms that exacerbate changes on both the up cycle and the down cycle. I believe however that with Beijing's control of the liquidation process, of interest rates, and of investor behavior, the Chinese financial system is organized in part to prevent financial crises.

But in so doing it is also organized to exacerbate underlying imbalances and ultimately to increase the cost of the adjustment. This means that if we are nearing the end of the growth model's life (in the next year or two if there is a strong consensus at the top, or in the next three to four years if there is a difficult leadership transition), the adjustment will not occur as a crisis but rather as a long and sharp slowdown in economic growth.

But to get back to the main story, investment-related fraud can occur at any time and during any period, but as many historians have noted, they become extremely hard to cover up during the stressful period just before a major balance sheet contraction – just think of Bernie Madoff, who managed successfully to hide massive fraud for many years. The rising revelation of fraud is one of the warning signals we should be tracking. Is this happening in China? Perhaps not yet, but if we see too many of these stories pop up in the next year or so, it should increase the sense that we nearing the end of the growth model's life.

China Hikes Reserve Requirements

On Friday the PBoC announced yet another 50-basis-point hike in minimum reserves (making it the fifth hike in five months).

But will these measures bite? My guess is that they will at first, but that when they do they will be quickly reversed. Any real attempt to reduce the sources of overheating will cause economic growth to slow too quickly, and Beijing will change its mind, especially if, as I expect, inflation peaks soon and starts to decline.

Mission Impossible

Let's face it – most Chinese growth is the result of overheated investment, and removing the sources of overheating without eliminating growth is going to prove impossible. I have been making the same argument for at least two or three years, and so far we have seen how Beijing veers between stomping on the gas when the economy slows precipitously and stomping on the brakes when it then grows too quickly. I don't believe anything has changed.

Deposits are down

If you count all lending, and not just the formal lending that shows up on bank balance sheets, loan growth has been greater than ever, and what's more total lending in 2010 was actually higher than in 2009. Remember that in 2009 new lending was RMB 9.6 trillion, and last year it was just under RMB 8 trillion. This was widely presented as a "prudent" reduction in credit expansion. It turns out there was no such reduction.

On a related note, the most interesting number in the NBS release, perhaps, was January the level of bank deposits. They were down. Dong Tao at Credit Suisse says that this is the first time this has happened since January 2002:

What was more concerning was that it was corporate deposits that went backwards, not household deposits, as may have been expected around Chinese New Year. This gives us reason to believe that the fall in deposits is not seasonal.

So why did corporate deposits drop? My guess is that large businesses may be finding it much more profitable to lend money to other businesses, especially those who don't have easy access to bank credit, than to deposit cash in the bank at such negative real rates.

Zaiteku again?

But not a good one. Those of us old enough to remember the 1980s will be reminded that the Japanese had a word for this kind of activity: zaiteku.

According to the Japanlink website, zaiteku is an abbreviation of zaimu tekunorojii, which means "Raising profit by utilizing capital for securities investments, real estate and the like." In the late 1980s Japanese companies, faced with the combination of highly repressed borrowing costs and the prospects of ever-rising asset prices (sound familiar?), discovered that it was far easier and more exciting to make money by speculating than by normal operations, and it became the great fashion among Japanese corporations.

But it came with a huge cost. Japanese companies began relying increasingly on zaiteku for profits and imbedded increasingly risky structures into their balance sheets. When the seemingly impossible happened, and asset prices stopped rising inexorably, the impact on Japan's subsequent contraction was made much worse.

From the Japanese experience (and many others) it is clear that when SOEs and large businesses find it profitable to speculate on asset markets, intermediate loans, or otherwise earn financial profits, they usually do, in which case we need to worry about three things. First, financial transactions – especially when they largely replicate risks that are being taken already within the financial system – increase systemic risk even as they disguise risk-taking. A problem in the financial markets is reinforced by a drop in corporate profitability tied to financial speculation, which then reinforces the problems in the financial markets.

Second, Chinese banks already do a bad enough job of assessing credit (why not, when most credit risk is socialized?), and it is hard for me to believe that we are going to see much better credit risk management from corporate treasurers, and even harder not to wonder if guanxi will play an important role in this whole process.

Third, the more lending occurs away from the purview of the PBoC and the CBRC, the less control and oversight monetary authorities will have over the financial system.

Of course within the banking system it is pretty clear that the regulators continued to be worried and are stepping up measures to control lending.

On the one hand overinvestment, excess liquidity and credit expansion, off-balance sheet activities, and zaiteku are generating huge growth and, along with it, huge risks, while on the other the PBoC and the CBRC are doing what they can to monitor, manage, and limit risks in the banking system. I wonder if they can pull it off.
Peak Oil and Chinese Energy Consumption

One factor Pettis did not mention was the effect of peak oil on China's growth.

In July 2010 the Wall Street Journal reported China Tops U.S. in Energy Use
China has passed the U.S. to become the world's biggest energy consumer, according to new data from the International Energy Agency, a milestone that reflects both China's decades-long burst of economic growth and its rapidly expanding clout as an industrial giant.

China's ascent marks "a new age in the history of energy," IEA chief economist Fatih Birol said in an interview. The country's surging appetite has transformed global energy markets and propped up prices of oil and coal in recent years, and its continued growth stands to have long-term implications for U.S. energy security.

The Paris-based IEA, energy adviser to most of the world's biggest economies, said China consumed 2.252 billion tons of oil equivalent last year, about 4% more than the U.S., which burned through 2.170 billion tons of oil equivalent. The oil-equivalent metric represents all forms of energy consumed, including crude oil, nuclear power, coal, natural gas and renewable sources such as hydropower.

China, meanwhile, disputed the IEA figures, but didn't offer alternative data, according to Zhou Xian, spokesperson for China's top energy agency.

The U.S. had been the globe's biggest overall energy user since the early 1900s, Mr. Birol said.

China overtook it at breakneck pace. China's total energy consumption was just half that of the U.S. 10 years ago, but in many of the years since, China saw annual double-digit growth rates. It had been expected to pass the U.S. about five years from now, but took the top position earlier because the global recession hit the U.S. more severely, slowing American industrial activity and energy use.

China's economic rise has required enormous amounts of energy—especially since much of the past decade's growth was fueled not by consumer demand, as in the U.S., but from energy-intense heavy industry and infrastructure building.

Mr. Birol, formerly an economist at OPEC, said China is expected to build some 1,000 gigawatts of new power-generation capacity over the next 15 years. That is about equal to the current total electricity-generation capacity in the U.S.—a level achieved over several decades of construction.
US China Peak Oil Doomsday Clock

Please consider China's Oil Consumption and Imports: A Growing National Security Threat to the West.
At the current rates of growth of US and China oil imports and consumption, China's oil consumption will match US oil imports by '16-'17. China's oil imports and consumption will reach parity with the US by '21-'22, at which point the US and China will together consume 60% of peak global oil production (assuming 73-75M bbl/day) versus 37-38% today, leaving the rest of the world to adapt to receiving the remaining 40% (35-40% less than is received today).

However, at the same trend rates of imports and consumption, the US and China will consume 80% of global oil production by the late '20s to early '30s, leaving the rest of the world just 20% of supplies, and China is on track to consume the entire world's oil production by the '40s-'50s; needless to say, this cannot occur.
Granted that is a "down the road" kind of problem, but it is yet another reason to be skeptical about China's perennial 10% growth targets.

China signals intention to curb oil demand via price hike


Inquiring minds are reading China signals intention to curb oil demand via price hike
21 Feb 2011

China's top economic planning body, the National Development and Reform Commission, has again signaled that it intends to curb runaway demand for petroleum products by adjusting prices through the price mechanism.

Late Saturday, Beijing announced that domestic guidance prices for gasoline and diesel will be increased by Yuan 350 ($53.14)/mt from midnight Sunday.

The hike follows an increase in the price of international crude oil, but the timing was "properly postponed" and the rise was "limited," the central planning authority said in the statement.

The adjustment is the first this year but the second in the past two months. The increase will hike the benchmark retail price of gasoline by Yuan 0.26/liter and diesel by Yuan 0.30/l, the NDRC said.

Liu Zhenqiu, vice director of the NDRC's price department, told the official Xinhua news agency that the rise in fuel prices was also aimed at restraining rapid increases in China's oil consumption and boosting energy conservation. In 2010, China's dependence on imported oil jumped to 55%, from 33% in 2009, with crude imports rising 17% to 239 million mt, he added.

According to the NDRC, China's domestic car sales surpassed 18 million units last year, which was a growth of 32% year on year.

Based on an annual consumption of 1.5 mt of gasoline per car, domestic refined product consumption would be increased by 27 million mt, or equivalent to an increase of 45 million mt of crude oil, the NDRC said.

"The situation of oil security is not optimistic ... there is an urgent need to adjust prices to guide and control the excessive growth in oil consumption and promote resource conservation," the NDRC said.

Preliminary data released last week by the country's General Administration of Customs showed that China's oil demand is continues to grow at a breakneck pace as measures to tighten its monetary policies to rein in its economy appears to have have failed to damp demand.

According to the data, crude oil imports in January rose 27.41% year on year to 21.8 million mt (5.15 million b/d), the highest in four months.

Refined product imports jumped 42.07% year on year to 3.85 million mt as domestic companies increased purchases to ensure ample supplies during the week-long holiday from February 3 to celebrate the Lunar New Year.
China is not only overheating badly, but it is also on a peak oil collision course with the western world in general and the US in particular. Something has to give, and it will.

Meanwhile, the longer China sticks with its current policies, the longer and deeper the resultant slowdown. China bulls are oblivious to these facts.

Mike "Mish" Shedlock
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com
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