Quote:
Originally Posted by seventwenty
Equally super-cereal question: Why don't you care enough?
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Thanks for your very articulate explanation.
Which reminds me....
I recently read in the
Birmingham Business Journal about how there local economy is being negatively impacted by the recession in the coal and steel industries. Coal has been negatively impacted by the utilities ongoing changeover over to NatGas from coal. Additionally they have been affected by the slowdown in China and the rising value of the dollar. The higher dollar has made their exports less competitive compared with Canada and Australia.
The domestic price for coal is now one-third of what it was a few years ago.
China, along with the U.S., has significant impact on the global economy. China finally decided they had enough empty towers and have stopped a lot of the construction.
Quote:
Originally Posted by soleri
I was in Beijing last week and dystopian doesn't begin to describe it. I've ragged on Phoenix for so long that it was nice surprise to discover a city that makes Phoenix look wonderful. Beijing has significant historical and economic assets, but the felt experience is very dreary - thousand upon thousands of new 35-story condo towers sitting empty. Cranes everywhere but not moving over their stalled projects. Horrendous traffic snarls. Countless apartment buildings from the 1980s and 90s that look worse than anything you see in American public housing projects. Pollution at levels that would be a scandal in any 1st-world nation.
China is trying to leapfrog into the 21st century any way it can. This points out why zoning, environmental regulations, and planning are important.
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China had ramped up their steel industry exponentially over the years. They now have waaay too much steel. They're reluctant to cut back steel production too much because it provides good jobs for their people. Chinese steel is now flooding the global market place.
Even though the cost of coke, an important component in making both iron ore and steel
has dropped by half in the last 18 months, domestic steel producers are still having trouble competing with imports. Additionally demand has dropped because oil & gas drilling used a lot of steel piping, etc.
So if the imported steel that goes into all those fancy new high rises causes the building to tilt in a few years... you'll know why. So far as any guarantees, just try collecting on those.
Also worth noting is that the dollar's high value will be impacting domestic exporters who had grown nicely in recent years.
There is a lot of wobbliness in the global economy although no apparent distress as yet.
There are trade-offs of course with cheaper materials costs and lower gas prices. My guess is that global nervousness is driving a lot of capital into the states. You might recall that three of the first Union Station buildings were sold to foreign all-cash buyers.
seventwenty... Just stuff I assume you wanted to know.
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