Oh, The Irony! Part 273

First, the irony of people who bought pirated software complaining about the fact that it still works but is not as pretty anymore just kills me.  If I buy DVD’s on the street, I don’t complain that they don’t work, I kiss my 5RMB goodbye and wait a couple of months till it comes out on iTunes.  But everyone online in China is mad at Microsoft for defending it self from the worst piracy on the planet!  YOU BOUGHT STOLEN PROPERTY!!!  Welcome to the world stage that you were so excited to be on back in August!  No one in China is mad that IP theft fuels the distrust of China by foreign companies, contributes to the lower-than-there-should-be levels of creativity and kills China’s own successfully branded companies.  Oh the irony!!Second, Why China will not step in and save the world.  Um…maybe no one is asking them too.  I could be wrong, but while I’m seeing a lot of press on the idea that China could do something, I’ve not seen any governments say anything even remotely similar to “they should” do something.  China has enough of it’s own problems (and many more than are readily apparent) to deal with and probably would rather not get involved in the tangled webs that have pulled the rest of the world down.I hope that I’m wrong, about China having too many of it’s own problems.  A strong China is better for the world economy, my personal economic well-being and global security and stability.But remember, China is supposedly strong because of how insulated it is from the world, not how well connected it is.  Why, in the midst of crisis, would it want to burst that security bubble?!  Also remember, China wants a “peaceful rise” and does not want to be come a hegemonic power.  Now would be the time to move into the role as leading candidate for next hegemon.  But it’s not.  It’s constrained, in part by it’s own rhetoric, oddly enough, to try to fit in and not stand out too much.Third, Retail sales are up in China, but the economy is bad!?!  Isn’t it?Here’s some context.  Chinese people save 40%.  And....It’s not hard to figure out that after a disastrous 2007/early 2008 in the local stock markets that people are not buying stocks in China any more.  Nor is it surprising that with slumping housing markets that Chinese people are waiting, cash in hand, to buy a house until things hit bottom.  Furthermore, spending on luxury purchases is also down in China.  Combine all of these with the fact that for 8 months of 2008 the entire country was on a self-induced, nationalistic high and what do you get?  Consumer spending is up 4% year on year!!So…let me get this right.  People had money, better attitudes, no bad news and nowhere to put it but in the shopping mall or the bank and they chose to spend a bit more?  No kidding?  Boy, aren’t those Chinese inscrutable?!  I’ll bet you’d find that bank savings rates were correspondingly higher too.  They’re still Chinese so the conservative sense that has helped them to avoid mortgages and save 40% of their incomes is still there.  But they also were openly celebratory for the first 8 months of this year—and celebrations cost money.Now the Oct 29 China Economic Review blog says: “The disappointments continue as more Chinese companies' third-quarter reports roll out.”  Who wants to bet that 4Q numbers for consumer spending this year track the poor 3Q corporate numbers?  Get back with me in February ’09 when the numbers come out.And, in the US, the two worst airlines in the history of the world are merging.  Tell me how this is a good thing!