Whonose?
Probably the Australopithecines are to blame. They started this daft tool-making craze.
Or maybe China, being short of water, could not feed its people. So they diverted the water to advanced tool-making (industry), to earn money to buy food, Much to the annoyance of various rare fish, dolphins and British bicycle spokesmen, which were then forced to apply for extinction.
So, they then made all sorts of fine made-up things in faraway Cathay. Some years back, they sent very nice mountain bicycles (with lots of gears, all of wich worked) to us in Oz and they only charged K-Mart $12.86 per bicycle.
Well, I don't care how good you are, you can't make a geared mountain bicycle for under thirteen dollars, not in this millennium. My Dad bought me my first one (a Humber, single-geared) late in the last one (1963) and he paid thirteen dollars for it then. OK, it was rands, but the rand was worth the same as an Aussie dollar then, and that was when the 'pithecines were all riding Humbers and the rand and the ozdoll were still real money and an icecream cost five cents. The Chings managed this feat of extraordinary generosity partly by export subsidy. partly by not paying anyone a wage anyone could own a home on or actually eat properly from. And partly with borrowed western bank money, I suspect. Then we foreign devils bought the bicycles and other geegaws and the Chinese folk bought the world's wheat, rice and the occasional steak (for the factory accountant).
We bought with credit cards, which unfortuntely were the same ones we were using to pay for our houses and our food. From the same banks the Chings borrowed from, but did not trust with their savings.
"You want me, an ex-Red Guard and now a student of Adam Smith and of Confucius, to put my money where?"
You can see the problem.
You think China still has a positive growth rate? With the Baltic Dry Index flirting with the seabed? You believe the official statistics from a nation that claims 300,000 kids got sick from fluffed up milk and only six died? Pull the other leg, it's got a goat from the Forbidden City tied to it. With string made from bunyip nostril hairs.
Then, my thesis continues, the rare fish or the river dolphins or the IMF or something complained and the banks promptly stopped sending their virtual money to China. No more letters of credit for geegaw shipments, plunge went the Baltic Dry Index, into the Marianas Trench, where it currently resides and cycles about. With all Daddy's ships at anchor, what could any self-respecting Greek uni student do, but trash the local shops? Etc., etc.
Meltdown.
QED.
