Technology & Innovation — October 24, 2011

China’s Credit-Starved Economy

Why are China’s SMEs–the beating heart of the country’s economic dynamism–struggling to get loans from the formal financial sector? Local governments are crowding them out.

bigthinkeditor

What’s the Latest Development?

Even in good times, it is hard for China’s small and medium-size enterprises to get bank loans. But amid current credit austerity, imposed to contain economic overheating and inflationary pressure, it is worse. In normal times, the informal financial market helps SMEs to get by but it can be very volatile and undependable. Why then, can’t China’s SMEs rely on the formal financial sector to finance their daily operations?

What’s the Big Idea?

The main impediment in China is local governments, which compete with SMEs for bank loans and inevitably crowd them out from the formal banking sector, and another key one is the dominance of large banks, which tend to lend to large companies in order to save costs. “The financial sector–the least reformed sector in China–now is suffocating the beating heart of the country’s economic dynamism.”

Strange Maps

America’s news deserts are growing

Most counties in the U.S. have only one local newspaper, often one that publishes weekly instead of daily.

Two people walking past a dark brick wall with numerous security cameras pointing in various directions.

The Present

Are smart cities a wise idea?

When Google runs a smart city, who owns the data?

Illustration of a young woman with closed eyes, smiling, next to a large, detailed eye and surrounded by vibrant, abstract elements and smiley faces.

Neuropsych

Eyes wide shut: Why closing your eyes intensifies psychedelic trips

A recent study suggests that exposure to visual stimuli can diminish the effects of psychedelic drugs.

Starts With A Bang

The big idea of Grand Unified Theories of physics

If the electromagnetic and weak forces unify to make the electroweak force, maybe, at higher energies, something even grander happens?

Microscopic image of a small electronic component with clear details of its structure and connections against a gray background.

The Future

Making microbots smart

What would it take to create a truly intelligent microbot, one that can operate independently?

Up Next

Guest Thinkers

Getting Technology Out of the Classroom?

The high-tech parents from Silicon Valley are now sending their kids to a school—the Waldorf School of the Peninsula—that sells itself as computer-free. Why? Such technology is a distraction, turning […]