The John Batchelor Show

VIDEO: Panama Papers

April 07, 2016

Monday 4 April 2016 / Hour 1, Block C: Gordon Chang, Forbes.com & Daily Beast; in re: Subprime Housing Risks Raise Red Flags in China  China’s efforts to tackle a glut of vacant housing by spurring home lending have triggered a bigger problem: A surge in risky subprime-style loans that is generating alarm.   . . . whenever subprime comes up you're headed for catastrophe. Making it easy to borrow so you can get the money to buy an apartment to keep real estate values elevated – it's about a fifth of the Chinese economy, but they're creating bubble in the Tier One cities (Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzen), whereas in the rest, it's all a huge bubble and no one’s buying. 
The Panama Papers – Intl Consortium of Investigative Journalists – got 11,000 records from _ Fonseca.  Sneaky investments: Xi’s relative, and Li Peng’s relative, among many many others who keep their illegal offshore wealth in Panama and elsewhere.  Thief leaders use brothers, children, parents, near family members.  Using the “Essential Facilities Doctrine (100 years old) requiring people to license – China using it to steal IP from Western companies.  Chinese govt is predatory, rapacious, will reap hundreds of billions of dollars in the short run, then come a cropper when the Chinese economy genuinely needs IT development. China is currently going in the wrong direction; no way to deal with China at present.  Not yet wiling to challenge a carrier battle group.  US needs to make China run away from Scarboro Shoal, which h China stole from the Philippines.  There’ll be a big war in Asia eventually, and the US may have to be involved in it. 
Also:  http://www.theguardian.com/news/2016/apr/03/the-panama-papers-how-the-worlds-rich-and-famous-hide-their-money-offshore.  On one particular point, the Republican frontrunner is right: http://www.forbes.com/sites/gordonchang/2016/04/03/more-ammo-for-trump-china-to-seize-foreign-tech/#7cddbd5949a5