Will China Save Western Capitalism?

~ Interesting article by Bill Bonner over at the Daily Reckoning, I was most surprised when he mentioned the Shanghai has outperformed the S&P by 65 percent YTD. If it weren't for the Chinese financing Mr. Obama's current spending spree, I suspect the difference would be even greater. 

China: The Hope of the World Economy?

03/05/09 Paris, France Sweden to GM/Saab: Drop Dead!

Finally, a nation with a little backbone…a little integrity…a little good sense.

And guess what, it’s that dreary socialist refrigerator – Sweden. Asked to bailout its GM-owned automaker, Saab, the country’s Prime Minister just said ‘no.’ Good for him…

“Voters did not pick me to buy loss-making car factories,” he explained.

But it’s a time of contradictions, paradoxes and oxymorons. Up is down. Right is left. In is out. Good is bad.

The socialists are the only ones protecting the free market, now. Americans are scuttling it with every chance they get. The stocks of capitalist companies are going up in communist China…but in America, they’re going down. Since November, the Shanghai index has outperformed the S&P by 75%.

And back in the United States, projects that were considered too marginal to justify spending money a year ago are now thought to be indispensable. And the IOUs of the biggest spendthrift on the planet are the hottest item on the market. Ten-year Treasury notes are now priced to yield only 2.99% – just as the Obama administration announces a $1.75 trillion budget deficit.

Read the rest here.