Economy

Ignore the Hype, China’s Leaders Cannot Re-Shape Economic Reality – Forbes

Published

3 years ago

January 23, 2022

While worries about Evergrande seem to have quieted, none of this means there’s nothing to learn from what happened. The Chinese real-estate giant is a useful reminder of how politicians and bureaucrats have no ability to prop up or grow any economy. None at all.

This is worth bringing up as news out of Beijing signals alleged economic support from China’s leadership. In a recent front page piece (“Beijing Moves to Cushion Economy As Risks Worsen”) at the Wall Street Journal, Stella Yifan Xie reported that “China’s leaders” cut “two key interest rates” in “response to the impact of pandemic restrictions and a property-market slump.” At best, these machinations will achieve less than nothing. And the reasons why are obvious.

Most obvious is that market interventions don’t work. By definition. Markets aren’t political or inclined one way or the other. Markets quite simply are. They’re a reflection of what’s known in the here and now. They’re an ideology-blind verdict. Please keep this in mind with government interventions meant to “Cushion Economy As Risks Worsen.” The translation of the latter is that Beijing’s leaders will lean against the truthteller that is the market itself. The markets are signaling dismay with pandemic restrictions, and they’re similarly signaling mistakes made by investors in the allocation of capital toward property.

In which case Beijing is aiming to reshape reality. Even if it succeeds (it won’t) in overwhelming the message of the market, such a move will not enhance China’s economy. We know this because restrictions on human action are by their very name a growth depressant, and China’s leaders are trying to paper over their own freedom-limiting errors. Just as harmful would be attempts to limit the market’s message about property mis-allocations. This is the equivalent of Congress intervening in the failure that was Warren Beatty and Dustin Hoffman’s Ishtar as a spur for the stars to make Ishtar II. Massive federal support (buying tickets for empty theaters) could have theoretically created a blockbuster that was otherwise a flop, but doubling down on bad is rarely good. The movie industry is bolstered by its failures precisely because failure teaches it how to succeed. Applied to China, how will it aid the property market and the economy more broadly if bad decisions are subsidized?

To which some will say an ability to limit the pain of bad decisions is evidence that government interventions do in fact work. Precisely because government can spend in order to mitigate the pain of bad, so can it soften the blow of Evergrande’s collapse by propping up same. The latter is a very debatable presumption (see below), but the presumption only speaks to what’s visible as is.

What’s not visible is what intrepid investors could achieve if able to acquire properties or resources on the fire-sale cheap. Economic growth is a consequence of investment in frequently unknown, untested, and potentially transformative ideas, but what’s unknown, untested and potentially transformative is generally expensive. It’s risky. This is important in consideration of bailouts. They limit the potential fall in prices, thus making it more challenging for the purchasers of troubled assets to take big risks. Investors quite simply have a lot more leeway to make audacious bets if they can buy distressed market goods for .25 cents on the dollar versus .75.

Worse, all businesses and entrepreneurs eager to rush a different, more vibrant future into the present must have access to precious resources (capital) in order to take the giant steps. Except that if government is providing an alleged “cushion” for a weakening economy, it’s by definition keeping precious capital in the hands of those who’ve abused it or misused it, as opposed to those interested in treating it better.

Stated simply, bailouts are always and everywhere an economic wet blanket. It’s been said here since 2008, but eventually it will be conventional wisdom that the interventions overseen by the George W. Bush administration and the Ben Bernanke Fed didn’t avert a crisis, rather they were the crisis. Absent their naïve meddling, 2008 is presently a year instead of an adjective.

Which brings us back to Evergrande. There’s more to its story than simple debt troubles. To see why, consider the currency denomination of so much of its debt. It’s in dollars. This speaks volumes, and most crucially does about the globalization of capital. While Evergrande is based in China, it’s apparent that the financing of its business endeavors is globalized.

On its own the above is a positive statement of the growing interconnectedness of the world economy, but it also speaks to the folly of “Beijing” attempting to cushion China’s economy. Good luck.

Indeed, assuming China’s economy is really contracting, rest assured that global capital intermediaries will pull from China’s commercial sector much more capital than Beijing can add. There’s no stimulus to speak of here. Money goes where it’s treated well, and if the markets have decided that Chinese producers are overextended, no amount of meddling by Chinese bureaucrats will alter this truth. All the leadership can do is slow economic growth by subsidizing what market actors will not.

Conversely, assuming the markets are wrong about growth prospects in China, rest assured that globalized financiers will know this far sooner than the high functionaries in Beijing. Put more simply, if there’s abundant potential for progress in China, copious funds from around the world will be there to finance it. Government cannot make great what isn’t.

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Economy

B.C.’s debt and deficit forecast to rise as the provincial election nears

Published

2 days ago

September 10, 2024

Anne Joseph

VICTORIA – British Columbia is forecasting a record budget deficit and a rising debt of almost $129 billion less than two weeks before the start of a provincial election campaign where economic stability and future progress are expected to be major issues.

Finance Minister Katrine Conroy, who has announced her retirement and will not seek re-election in the Oct. 19 vote, said Tuesday her final budget update as minister predicts a deficit of $8.9 billion, up $1.1 billion from a forecast she made earlier this year.

Conroy said she acknowledges “challenges” facing B.C., including three consecutive deficit budgets, but expected improved economic growth where the province will start to “turn a corner.”

The $8.9 billion deficit forecast for 2024-2025 is followed by annual deficit projections of $6.7 billion and $6.1 billion in 2026-2027, Conroy said at a news conference outlining the government’s first quarterly financial update.

Conroy said lower corporate income tax and natural resource revenues and the increased cost of fighting wildfires have had some of the largest impacts on the budget.

“I want to acknowledge the economic uncertainties,” she said. “While global inflation is showing signs of easing and we’ve seen cuts to the Bank of Canada interest rates, we know that the challenges are not over.”

Conroy said wildfire response costs are expected to total $886 million this year, more than $650 million higher than originally forecast.

Corporate income tax revenue is forecast to be $638 million lower as a result of federal government updates and natural resource revenues are down $299 million due to lower prices for natural gas, lumber and electricity, she said.

Debt-servicing costs are also forecast to be $344 million higher due to the larger debt balance, the current interest rate and accelerated borrowing to ensure services and capital projects are maintained through the province’s election period, said Conroy.

B.C.’s economic growth is expected to strengthen over the next three years, but the timing of a return to a balanced budget will fall to another minister, said Conroy, who was addressing what likely would be her last news conference as Minister of Finance.

The election is expected to be called on Sept. 21, with the vote set for Oct. 19.

“While we are a strong province, people are facing challenges,” she said. “We have never shied away from taking those challenges head on, because we want to keep British Columbians secure and help them build good lives now and for the long term. With the investments we’re making and the actions we’re taking to support people and build a stronger economy, we’ve started to turn a corner.”

Premier David Eby said before the fiscal forecast was released Tuesday that the New Democrat government remains committed to providing services and supports for people in British Columbia and cuts are not on his agenda.

Eby said people have been hurt by high interest costs and the province is facing budget pressures connected to low resource prices, high wildfire costs and struggling global economies.

The premier said that now is not the time to reduce supports and services for people.

Last month’s year-end report for the 2023-2024 budget saw the province post a budget deficit of $5.035 billion, down from the previous forecast of $5.9 billion.

Eby said he expects government financial priorities to become a major issue during the upcoming election, with the NDP pledging to continue to fund services and the B.C. Conservatives looking to make cuts.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 10, 2024.

Note to readers: This is a corrected story. A previous version said the debt would be going up to more than $129 billion. In fact, it will be almost $129 billion.

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Economy

Mark Carney mum on carbon-tax advice, future in politics at Liberal retreat

Published

3 days ago

September 10, 2024

Anne Joseph

NANAIMO, B.C. – Former Bank of Canada governor Mark Carney says he’ll be advising the Liberal party to flip some the challenges posed by an increasingly divided and dangerous world into an economic opportunity for Canada.

But he won’t say what his specific advice will be on economic issues that are politically divisive in Canada, like the carbon tax.

He presented his vision for the Liberals’ economic policy at the party’s caucus retreat in Nanaimo, B.C. today, after he agreed to help the party prepare for the next election as chair of a Liberal task force on economic growth.

Carney has been touted as a possible leadership contender to replace Justin Trudeau, who has said he has tried to coax Carney into politics for years.

Carney says if the prime minister asks him to do something he will do it to the best of his ability, but won’t elaborate on whether the new adviser role could lead to him adding his name to a ballot in the next election.

Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland says she has been taking advice from Carney for years, and that his new position won’t infringe on her role.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 10, 2024.

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Economy

Nova Scotia bill would kick-start offshore wind industry without approval from Ottawa

Published

3 days ago

September 10, 2024

Anne Joseph

HALIFAX – The Nova Scotia government has introduced a bill that would kick-start the province’s offshore wind industry without federal approval.

Natural Resources Minister Tory Rushton says amendments within a new omnibus bill introduced today will help ensure Nova Scotia meets its goal of launching a first call for offshore wind bids next year.

The province wants to offer project licences by 2030 to develop a total of five gigawatts of power from offshore wind.

Rushton says normally the province would wait for the federal government to adopt legislation establishing a wind industry off Canada’s East Coast, but that process has been “progressing slowly.”

Federal legislation that would enable the development of offshore wind farms in Nova Scotia and Newfoundland and Labrador has passed through the first and second reading in the Senate, and is currently under consideration in committee.

Rushton says the Nova Scotia bill mirrors the federal legislation and would prevent the province’s offshore wind industry from being held up in Ottawa.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 10, 2024.

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