Out of Pod Experience

I'm sorry but as a financial analyst i find this data about china totally hilarious. They're lucky to get 7-7.5% today (and a lot of private financial houses question the official figures with a HUGE pinch of salt since independent figures are nigh on impossible to get) and are cooling faster and faster with a very bad housing bubble yet to burst. Not to mention their capital outflow issues. Which is music to my ears.

On top of that you already have a growing momentum of companies to find cheaper / greener pastures outside of China. Plus the incalculable damage they are doing with their neighbours. Lots of funds are divesting their interests / assets. Capital is still pouring in. But i still dont like the way its going.

Hold your horses on China. Like all us sensible financial people are doing. People are too keen to say the USA is through, the same was hollered in the 80s / 90s about Japan.

Ed. - a few more issues.

They wont do that as it would wreck so many systems already in place and spell disquiet in China. And the PRC is loathe to have tensions amongst the people. China wants to rise, but theyre still primarily a manufacturing hub. Until they get their white collar tech up and running and start innovating and manufacturing their own products they cant risk it. And thats not going to happen for a long while it seems. China isnt very good at selling itself the same way the Japanese were.

Thats a very short summary. But in a nutshell if they were to try it, it would backfire horribly upon them as funds divest themselves and they watch their economy crumble and face possible rebellion. Its in everyones interest to play nice.

China has the USA by the balls, the USA has China by the throat as it were.

Yay Neoliberal economics!

Since one of china's arguments (and a valid one for once) is that the USA enjoyed economic growth for the past 60+ years and didn't care about pollution at all or global warming, and now the USA is dictating what china should be doing on the pollution matter( which it is very polluted), but there's all these economic tensions between both if the fight gets really nasty, is why nothing will change for the 2 countries that contribute the most to pollution.

As a diesel owner I have to say I haven't had any engine issues but I do own a new (2010) car. £20 road tax

I do find it odd as a Brit that Americans aren't demanding the same kind of mpg quality that we get. Mitsubishi are advertising a new SUV hybrid over here and claim it gets 148 MPG, its a lie, but it will be getting over 70-80 mpg which for a big car like this is very good.

I've heard the Mazda Atenza diesel gets very good MPG. But i hardly ever drive in Tokyo, so much easier to take the train.

Well my little 1.4 diesel Citroen C3 went from Innsbruck to the outskirts of Amsterdam on one tank and I was doing 75-90mph for most the trip. (47 liter tank) Granted I didn't aim for doing the trip on one tank, I didn't realize I needed fuel until I was down to 30 miles and the first two stations I stopped at didn't have any diesel left. Got filled up with 15 miles left in the tank

petrol smells a bit better than manure tho





I know the most recent C3 is better looking than the first gen, but... dude....

Better quality too. Its actually a good car and a 1.6 not a 1.4.

I now have a problem though because any new car I get must have a panoramic windscreen.

Still got a few years left in the C3 before I would want something new so I'll likely look into the next gen hybrids.

That's my main fear right there since:


1: China and japan hate each others guts ever since WW2 ended since japan invaded their country and killed a lot of people, and both countries are still disputing islands in the Chinese sea that are worthless, but what isn't worthless is that below those are fairly large oil deposits and both want their hands on it.

2: China is building up militarily in a big way, to the point where they want 5 carriers operational within the next 10 years, so they can enforce their way of thinking on the overall region.

3: China does not recognize the independence of Taiwan, and still state the island belongs to them, hence why Taiwan is armed to the teeth, and has US backing in japan with the base at Okinawa japan where there's 30 000 troops, and the US's 6th fleet stationed there( carrier, cruisers, destroyers, frigates and nuclear subs, etc..)

4: We have the situation with north and south Korea and trying to get stability between those 2, which technically, are still at war even today, and north Korea are allies with china.

5: China is a big trade partner of Russia to the point that even as of a couple of weeks ago, they signed new trade agreements despite the fact trade sanctions were being imposed by the USA and allies for the whole situation in Ukraine...How's that for a _I_ the USA and partners.

6: The Olympics showed the means china was willing to hide the pollution problem by having all the local higher pollution businesses shutting down for a month so that visitors taking pictures would see a nice clear blue sky....


7: we have all these personal attacks between both China and the USA, but I mentioned this in my last post, and that China is a free market economy but not a democracy at all, since there's no open elections where the public participates at all levels, protests aren't allowed either( Tien amen square in 1989) , no opposition party at all or political debates either, so it's still very much communist in that respect and does what it wants to do, and has a lot of financial control in the USA and that's the end of it.


8: the USA can ***** and moan all it wants, this isn't a country that bows down to the established super powers as they're not a country in development anymore and are getting to super power status quickly....They have nukes and nuclear power plants, they build rockets and have a space program and are the third country to put a man into orbit, and build a lot of their own military gear and more....List would be endless, but fun fact is that Mercedes and Ferrari's largest market is china...


So it's a powder keg just waiting for a detonator to set it off sooner or later as it continues it's build up politically, economically and militarily, and pollution isn't a high priority unless it's a public event to save face.