Comments by "Samson Soturian" (@samsonsoturian6013) on "Is the Evergrande Crisis a Contagion Risk?" video.

  1. What you talking about? Party members are just as involved as everyone else in this bubble. For instance, in China the government owns all the land and leases it for decades. Lease transfer fees/taxes are about 40% of the cost of a house, giving government officials incentive to see property costs grow. It also means there's no reason to build anything that will outlive the lease. More importantly, China's local officials are appointed by Beijing and are in highly competitive positions with promotions/demotions/jail/bonus/state resources being given out based on GDP numbers. That plus crony capitalism is tolerated, equals a lot of state-backed urban building ventures with contracts going to men with friends in high places.
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  2. Dude, the man in this video represents an institution investing in China. They're just as human as the next guy.
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  3. Dear Mr Sulivan, Don't assume this is not the start of a systemic breakdown. Evergande's extreme levels of debt and high turnover are quite common in Chinese real estate and there are corporate bankruptcies every day of the week in that sector. Housing costs are artifically high, ghost cities are not common, and so are unused skyscrapers. To be fair, it's been like this for a while.
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