> Kemian Wood Industry, which used to boast of the quality of its composite floorboards, took radical steps to deal with the downturn. It switched its focus to online gaming and changed its name.<p>> A hotel group rebranded itself as a high-speed rail company, a fireworks maker as a peer-to-peer lender and a ceramics specialist as a clean-energy group.<p>I've heard of pivoting, but this goes way beyond that. Doing a complete 180 on what you're producing/selling and changing your name? That's both fascinating and scary at the same time. As a customer, how do you know whether the company you're buying from will still be around?
I find myself noticing that a lot of the solutions that The Economist proposes are very similar - opening markets, decreasing regulation - make everything more "liberal". They always make compelling arguments for their suggestions but I also find myself wondering whether they ever argue for any alternative
> Global investors are not buying into the mania: the shares of companies listed in both Hong Kong and Shanghai are now 30% more expensive in the latter.<p>I'm quite confused by this statement -- if the shares on both exchanges are equivalent, this seems like an insanely good arbitrage opportunity. Are China's capital controls really tight enough to prevent Chinese nationals from finding a way to invest in the same stocks on the HK index for a 30% discount? And even if they are, I'm not clear <i>why</i> the Chinese government would do this -- it's like charging a 30% premium to domestic investors just for being Chinese.
I may be completely off about this, but isn't it the term suppose to be "going concern"? I thought I had discovered a phrase I didn't know, but then I did a Google search and the only occurance is this article.<p>That said, if China's market goes under it may be pretty gory. :)
> A shift to monetary easing and fiscal stimulus—and expectations of more to come—help explain why the rally began. But the longer it continues, the more it looks like irrational exuberance.<p>The spark that started it all?<p>This is crazy:<p>> Credit Suisse estimates that 6-9% of China’s market capitalisation is funded by credit, nearly five times the average in the rich world.