China To Close 2,000 Factories In Energy Crackdown 242
Hugh Pickens writes "The NY Times reports that China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has published a list of 2,087 steel mills, cement works and other energy-intensive factories required to close by September 30 after discussions with provincial and municipal officials to identify industrial operations with outdated, inefficient technology. The goal of the factory closings is 'to enhance the structure of production, heighten the standard of technical capability and international competitiveness and realize a transformation of industry from being big to being strong,' the ministry says. The current Chinese five-year plan calls for using 20 percent less energy this year for each unit of economic output than in 2005 but surging production by heavy industry since last winter has put in question China's ability to meet this target. In addition to the energy-efficiency objective in the current five-year plan, a plan announced by President Hu Jintao late last year called for China to reduce its carbon emissions per unit of economic output by 40 to 45 percent by 2020, compared with 2005 levels."
Re:Meanwhile, here in the West... (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Meanwhile, here in the West... (Score:3, Informative)
is this scenario plausible
No, it's not. Why would someone purposefully cause the value of an investment that they hold to tank?
Re:Stupid to leave this to the Chinese. (Score:5, Informative)
You do know China is doing a really strong push into renewable energy? They are the worlds largest manufacturer of wind power equipment and has put serious efforts into solar, wind, energy crops, has this written into law and they even (gasp!) signed the Kyoto protocol the US took a dump on.
Re:So who will be the next China? (Score:3, Informative)
Really? California has the third highest unemployment rate in the US [bls.gov]. It's third or fourth [cnn.com] in the country for foreclosures. Sacramento is broke and has the lowest credit rating of the 50 states.
Seems pretty gutted to me.
Re:Meanwhile, here in the West... (Score:2, Informative)
and why people sell falling stocks before they hit the ground? They want to get at least some value back. With or without their actions China's investment loses value. If they try to sell - value of dollar reserves drops, they don't sell but USA print more money to monetize debts which they do all the time to cover gigantic deficits - value of dollar reserves drops. USA have snowball's chance in hell to pay their debt so they are forced to roll it over. The treasury issues bonds to cover maturing ones, it's enough to not buy the next tranches to put the US in a really deep shit. The FED will be forced to buy bonds from the treasury (which is the act of money creation, because money used to pay didn't exist before) and then you have a high inflation.
Chinese 'help' the US only because that accelerates the rate of wealth transfer from the US to China. They are like a drug pusher - every trillion they lend the to the US fuels the addiction to foreign money so they get a bigger leverage over the US with each passing day. The truth is that the US is the China's bitch now as the hand that gives is above the hand that takes. Chinese continue to throw good money after bad, but when they suck out as much as they can, they'll drop the US with no second thought and let them rot.