China’s Heroin

China may rely too heavily on property development to keep its domestic economy running foreshadowing a real estate bubble burst similar to the one in the U.S. “China’s property market is a bubble that may burst by as early as this year, according to hedge fund manager James Chanos. The world’s third-biggest economy may need to keep up the pace of property investment because up to 60 percent of its gross domestic product relies on construction, said Chanos. The bubble may begin to ‘run its course’ in late-2010 or 2011, he said in an interview on ‘The Charlie Rose Show’ that will air on PBS and Bloomberg TV. China is ‘on a treadmill to hell,’ said Chanos, who said in January the nation is Dubai times a thousand. ‘They can’t afford to get off this heroin of property development. It is the only thing keeping the economic growth numbers growing.'”