Morning Reading – Thursday, February 3, 2011
The Infrastructurist: China To Create World’s Largest City
China is going for all the records these days. It recently completed the world’s longest high-speed rail line, only to follow that up with the world’s fastest train. For an encore, the Chinese are now preparing to create the world’s largest mega-city.
The plan will merge nine existing cities across 16,000 square miles of the Pearl River Delta — creating a new boundary that encompasses China’s manufacturing core and, all told, accounts for almost 10 percent of the country’s economy.
FT BeyondBRICs: Chinese property bubble: a myth?
Citigroup’s calculation that residential property investment in China has soared to 6.1 per cent of gross domestic product – a level last seen in the United States shortly before the global financial crisis – has intensified fears of a property bubble in the country.
The Big Picture: How U.S. Income Groups Get Squeezed By Food Prices
Take a look at the chart above constructed from the Bureau of Labor and Statistics 2009 Consumer Expenditure Survey. It conveys a sense of how Egypt’s poverty combined with the sharp rise in food prices sparked the political revolt against the Mubarek government.
The Big Picture: Watch yields here
We are again approaching a key spot in the 10 yr benchmark note. The yield at 3.49% is at the highest level since Dec 15th on a closing basis and just 3 bps from matching the highest since May ’10. The 30 yr bond yield at 4.64% is now at the highest since late April ’10.
The Big Picture: Blogonomics: A New Chapter
The Google revs starts me athinkin’: The entire economic model of blogs needs a reboot. There is enormous traffic, tremendous intellectual firepower, budding influence — all gravitatating to the blogosphere, and yet for most bloggers, the economics of blogging are dismal. Ad networks are okay, but only if you are one of the top 2% of blogs, and even then, they can be inconsistent.
The Big Picture: Microsoft the Innovator: Bing Copies Google Search Results
When it comes to Microsoft, I have long argued that they got lucky int heir deal with IBM. Aftewr that, pretty much everything they ever did was either ripped off from someone else — as in stolen — or a very obvious “inspired by.” (They did occasionally buy stuff as well, but not if they could avoid it).
The Slope of Hope: Nope. No Inflation Here. Not At All.