Two Ways to See China's Problems - Economic View - NYTimes.com - 0 views
-
Julieta Fischer on 02 Sep 12China faces some serious economic problems. One main problem is that China seems to be suffering from excess capacity resulting from an overinvestment in factories, retail stores or infrastructure which leads to an imbalanced supply and aggregate demand relation. Aggregate demand is the total demand for a nation's goods and services from domestic households, firms, the government and foreigners. The article reveals two different approaches to evaluating China's economy: the Keynesian theory and the Austrian school theory. The Keynesians argue that aggregate demand drives stability and that governments can and should help in difficult times. The Chinese government has the tools to increase aggregate demand as it could for example "adjust interest rates and bank reserve requirements, instruct state-owned banks to maintain lending", deploy foreign exchange reserves, or initiate construction and infrastructure projects. On the other hand, the Austrian school of economics believes that it is hard for the government to invest money wisely, particularly in China, where there seems to be an environment of "economic favoritism". The Keynesians may believe that China will be able to manage its overcapacity; however, the Austrian theory argues that the Chinese government will distort resource allocation and further limit aggregate demand. - Julieta Fischer