China's going the debt way of Spain, Ireland and Japan (Financial Times)

When you look at where capital spending is now going, that makes sense. On YouTube, you will find an amazing film of the city of Ordos. It is newly built and could be home to 1m people. Instead, it’s empty. With prices rising 50-60 per cent a year in some areas, its houses have been bought by investors expecting to make a turn without having to bother with pesky tenants. Think Manchester 2006.

And it isn’t just residential cities that are empty. China now has more ports, offices, airports and steel factories than it will know what to do with for many years to come. Commercial property vacancy rates in central Shanghai are said to be as high as 50 per cent.