News Round Up--The Best Links of the Last 48 Hours

I collect news links to read as I travel back and forth to factories.  Here is my edited list of hightlights from Wednesday and Thursday.  I thought it was especially good reading so I'm sharing.  You're welcome.China stocks continue to drop, and while you can’t judge a economy by one day, October is worst month ever.  After a day of election euphoria the US stock market took an historic plunge too. Thursday night update--world stock plunge.  The Auto and other industries are looking at 60%+ profit drops! I hope this is not the “change” that we'll be getting for the next 4 years.In the larger context, the Chinese economy is still robust compared to most countries.  But, as many have predicted, it’s getting worse.  I said that you’d need growth below 8.5% to see social.  Others are saying that it’ll have to be worse than that mark but that “worse” is certainly on the way.Anecdotal evidence about the bad economy: Canton Fair attendance was way down.  You can debate the reasons but it doesn't change the fact that Southern China is losing jobs, and there is a significant slowdown in Chinese manufacturing too.Surprisingly, or not, there is a serious political nature to the Chinese economy which some think is not helping things--it's hard to debate the State sponsored 11% of the last decade, though.  Of course, like everything else, you can (honestly) just blame the US for the mess--we started it and weren't ready for the results.  Regardless of the fault, China/India are indeed making changes, trying to help their economies.But of course you can’t blame the US for what’s going concerning product quality in China.  A great (I mean really great) Time article about how you can replace any other scandal with melamine and predict the government's response.  By the way melamine is going to get even worse before it gets better. And here and here.No surprise then that Wal-Mart’s opinion of Chinese suppliers’ quality control is not good.The other major issue in the world is the new President Elect Obama in the US.  Despite the fact that we’re supposed to believe that we’re now all color blind and “this isn’t about” Obama, I'm still a bit skeptical--I mean, this election taught us that as long as someone's a member of a minority religion or a woman, bigotry is still OK--just as long as were not racist.  I'll be sure to tell my direct ancestors that were KILLED in the US for their religion that they can now celebrate this "historic" occasion.  Ahem, sorry.  Anyway, here are some of China’s reactions to Obama’s win.  They range from “moderate” to “neutral” to challenging.  I’ll report, you decide.  That sounds fair, eh?Bloomberg, WJS, Times of India, UK Telegraph and Forbs. And here’s a stab at the Future of US-China relations.  Very similar to the prediction that I made a month ago too.If you didn’t know already, the China Kool-Aid is just slightly less popular than the Obama Kool-Aid.   3 of 10 of the World's Next Great Cities are in China.  And another list of China's Fastest Changing Cities that's interesting.  Shenzhen, Hong Kong and Guangzhou are 1, 2 and 3--need any more evidence that the PRD is in turmoil?!And finally, I thought that this Thai political problem would be like all the others, but I was wrong—this time the opposition (it’s the PAD this time) has gotten wise.  Instead of waiting for the military to step in this minority party has figured out that if they cause enough trouble they can force the military’s hand.  Both sides are corrupt and culpable to be sure.  But regardless of blame, Thailand’s democracy is now going backwards.  I hope the military can resist the urge to overthrow an elected democratic government.  But it looks increasingly like another military coup is coming soon.  So much for the holidays in BKK.