Stephen Green ist Chairman von HSBC. Im Interview mit dem Handelsblatt sagt Green, dass das Schlimmste der Finanzkrise vorbei ist, gleichzeitig aber noch mit Rückschlägen zu rechnen ist. Und Green erklärt, warum das Investmentbanking nicht von Universalbanken abgetrennt werden sollte. Auch zum Thema Boni hat der HSBC-Chef eine klare Meinung.
Hier noch ein bisschen Bärenfutter, werde bis Mittwoch konspirativ in der Ostsee untertauchen.
Market Commentary
Don't Count on China
By Bert Dohmen
Street.com Contributor
9/4/2009 2:00 PM EDT
We turned bearish on China in late 2007. The Xinhua 25 index (FXI) plunged 72% to the low last year. Since that time, China has had a big rally. The index rose with a much-publicized 100%. However, after the decline of the past, the index is down 45% from the top. The Shanghai index plunged 20% over the past two weeks.
Interestingly, popular opinion has been that China will pull the world out of the global malaise. China had been buying commodities and non-ferrous metals since early this year, but that was for stockpiling, not for use.
My view is that China is the caboose (Bremswagen), not the locomotive. The surge in the Chinese stock market has been caused by excessive credit, not economic fundamentals.
You see, stimulus first goes into the investment markets, because a recessionary economy cannot absorb all that money in the early phases. Therefore, it goes into speculation. [Ist das in USA nicht ähnlich? - A.L.] Eventually that money can go into economic activities if companies feel that economic conditions justify expansion. But those activities must bring a return on investment, otherwise they just create another huge mountain of defaulted debt. Chinese banks have added over $700 billion of loans to their portfolios this year. You can bet that a large number of these loans will eventually default.
In Japan, they built superhighways and bridges to nowhere as a way to stimulate the economy. The country now has one of the highest debt-to-GDP ratios, but the efforts did not stimulate. There was no return on investment.
The Chinese economy is only one-quarter the size of the U.S. economy. Our exports to China are only $6.5 billion per month, or $73 billion per year. Even if our exports to China double through some miracle, that won't even make a dent in our economic contraction.
Beware of governmental statistics, also in China. For example, late last year, China's manufacturing sector contracted for five consecutive months according to the CLSA China Purchasing Managers Index. Yet official numbers for GDP showed 8% growth. How is that possible?
Consumption of electricity is one of the best indicators of economic activity. This year it has declined in China. How can that be when allegedly the economy is growing strongly?
The current stimulus program in China is more effective so far than those of the U.S. and Europe, at least as far as speculation is concerned. While western banks speculated in highly leveraged derivatives going into the 2007 top, and lost fortunes that way, China's banks made loans everywhere, especially real estate, which is now going into default. Dumb bankers are not just found in the West.
China's latest $586 billion stimulus program urged banks to make loans, primarily for infrastructure projects. The government wanted 72% of that money to be used for infrastructure, such as building airports and other public works. But such projects take time to get ready. So the banks were lending a good part for speculation, which drove the stock market and real estate sectors frantically higher this year.
About 20% of bank lending went into stock speculation, and another 30% or so went into the property market, according to Wei Jianing, an economist with a Cabinet-level think tank. But China's real estate already has huge gluts, both in the residential and commercial sectors. The DNA of every real estate developer is when he gets the money, he builds, whether there is demand or not.
Bottom line: Investors who are betting in China on bailing out the global economies may be making a foolish bet.
