China Struggles to Control Its Collapsing Bubbles

As the Trends editors have long argued, China's apparent success has been propped up by unsustainable command-and-control mechanisms, made possible because of its unique mix of communist and capitalist institutions. Like the computer-enhanced video and lipped-synched audio that lent a surreal quality to the Beijing Olympics, China's financial results since the beginning of the Great Recession are "much less than meets the eye." In fact, the real miracle is that the technocrats have done such a superb job of keeping the whole thing afloat. However, this feat becomes eve.....