The global economy is losing its last shock absorber

[marmar]

(Business Insider) China's economy is in trouble.

Last week's surprise devaluation of the Chinese currency, the yuan, has brought the world's second-biggest economy into focus, and it's not a pretty picture.

Growth is slowing, inflation is very low, the country's demographics mean its workforce will soon stop growing. It has also failed to put a stop to its considerable debt accumulation in recent years.

But according to Stephen King, outgoing chief economist at HSBC, that way of telling the story ignores China's role as the heavy-lifter in the global recovery — the economy that's been able to take a beating on behalf of the rest of the world.

King calls China "the shock absorber for the global economy, a punch bag seemingly able to soak up the recessionary blows that would otherwise have totally derailed global growth." .................(more)

Read more: http://uk.businessinsider.com/hsbcs-stephen-king-the-global-economy-is-losing-its-last-shock-absorber-2015-8#ixzz3jE1cltl6

[GreatGazoo]

1. If the global economy can't survive without "growth" then it is a Ponzi scheme.

[truebluegreen]

2. That's been capitalism from the beginning.

It is a system that requires growth to keep functioning, and permanent growth is not possible in a closed format (that being the planet).

Clearly we don't need to "save" capitalism, we need to move beyond it.

[dixiegrrrrl]

3. i said exactly the same thing in 1976 to my econ Proff. in college.

We were 30 minutes into Econ 201 course.
He could not handle the question, I could not handle such a class and dropped it.
It seems so damn obvious, doesn't it?

[truebluegreen]

4. It does, and it is.

1976? Think where we could have been by now if the power structure was as insightful as people not wedded to the system...