Our economy struggling with uncertainties, housing issues, foreclosures, global fluctuations, and pandemic aftermath, causing instability. Rising inflation, sluggish growth, and trade disruptions need urgent attention from all sectors to restore stability and stimulate growth.

Reminds me of Canada's housing and innovation situation. The money gets tied up in low risk real estate instead of risky innovations, and thus Canada becomes a technological laggard and slowly falls behind the rest of the world.

The other part of this that is missed is that local governments were funding themselves via land sales. They can't sell land if the real estate market is in trouble. Worse still they put this money towards GDP growth which many times consisted of infrastructure projects that are not delivering. This has piled up debt for local governments in an uncontrolled way.

Any situation where the only people buying homes are people who already own multiple homes is already broken, it's just a question of when that actually hits the companies where it hurts.

As I used to explain to people, these property developments were basically giant concrete bitcoins sold to Chinese investors who didn't see any better options for preserving and growing their wealth.

Wait are you muscling in on PolyMatter's territory? :p

is it really worth investing in stocks in 2024, I’ve been on the sidelines watching the market for awhile and it seems to be pretty stagnant to me not that it matters because I’m in it for the long run, but how can one generate actual profit in this current market?

This is happening in New Zealand as well, at a smaller scale. Housing is being all bought up by investors or people looking to make money at an increasingly large rate. The value has balooned far outside the actual utility value of the proporty. This is compounded by many extra cases of chinese buyers of course who were buying our property up the same way the video said they bought theres, from overseas, and leaving them empty up until the govt banned overseas buyers in 2017. But those already bought houses are still there, and still empty. The bubble is going to burst at some point, and its gonna be a shitshow

This is a sincere suggestion, I paused at 10:00 when you were going to talk about the 'how' but not explained the true 'why' the Cjinese people were buying so much houses. As an investment yes, but the deep reason is that China has not developed other ways to invest, for middle and high class. A wealthy Chinese can't invest in the financial market for example, thus housing market became the way to do it. Just an addition, I'm a big fan of the channel, even this video's production value is top notch :D

to be fair, the average salary in China can not be easily compared with other countries since there is a major gap between the rural and urban areas.. that gap is not that much profound in most other countries..

The current market/economy is unnecessarily tougher for boomers/senior citizens, I’m used to just buying and holding assets which doesn’t seem applicable to the current rollercoaster market plus inflation is catching up with my portfolio. I’m really worried about survival after retirement.

This is only part of the truth. Only in first and second-tier cities in China can housing prices be very high, and in small fourth and fifth-tier cities, you can buy a house for only 100000 yuan. The decline in housing prices is beneficial to the lives of ordinary people

13 years to fully buy a house in NYC? That sounds a little low…

Evergrande opened a EV company cause china would pay the companies for each EV even if they didn't sell the car to anyone. that's why you find videos or tons of fields of EVs in china that nobody is buying.

The real estate investment craze was real. The Chinese were known to buy up and hoard apartments in Hong Kong where demand for housing is always strong with supply being limited due to land issues, causing the already insane real estate prices to go up even further and exacerbating the problem. A lot of these apartments weren't inhabited and everybody knew they're for investment. Adults learned of it first-hand and teenagers studied it and the related politics at school as housing is still one of the most pressing social issues in Hong Kong.

Controlled demolition is accurate

I love the videos but starting to find the background music distracting. It’s not the first time I’ve noticed that, but this time was the worse. It should not be nearly as loud as Sam’s voice

Those graphs were beautiful and extremely easy to understand. I just had to say that.

Thanks for showing all the info with the least bs, no clickbait, no shouting random pieces of info on the screen so as to force the viewer to take your words without trying to question you; while still making the video really engaging. This is why your channel is worth following.

2:51 I made it this far in the entire two minutes and 51 seconds I was waiting for the phrase “Now, it’s time to learn how money works”! I’m pretty sure because of the voice!

just fyi, multiple video clips (both archival and modern) you use in this video are of hong kong and not mainland china

3:30 this can be said of a lot of the world, here in the UK you can have a company own the frehoold of several 100 acres, they then sell the leasehold to a housing developer, who, once built, can lease it out to a management company, but also lease on 100 years more/or less individual plots to the public. In London you can often go 3 or 4 leases before you get through the entire chain.

If possible, please address the music audio issues in videos. I've been noticing with newer videos that it's becoming louder than it was originally and that the quality of the music is also really bad. It has distortions and clipping making it more noticeable to the point it's becoming distracting from the topic being presented.

The crunchy and distorted background music is mega annoying in this one. Go easy on the normalization plugin.

"Chinese residential spaces were as cramped as a kitchen in an American family home" Millenials living in Boston: "hey, like me!" "The Chinese paid 1-3% of their income in rent" Millenials living in Boston: ................

Good video. I heard they say China's economy slowed down in 2008, 2012, 2016 etc... yet they became a super power in front of my very eyes...

My uncles in China were given some money from the government for house renovations in their rural seaside village. The shops, parks, and facilities there were greatly improved as well. I'm guessing they want to make the villages look more attractive for domestic tourism and for city folk to consider moving into them, to spread out the dense population centers.

Way better than any "China is Over" video

Companies like Country Garden also have incomplete foreign development. If the domino starts to fall in China, it will drag South East Asia along with it. It may not hit as hard as China, but it will hurt.

I love your channel, you do a great job explaining things.

I wish the music on Wendover videos was much quieter. It feels too foregrounded and I dislike feeling like my emotional response to nonfiction content is being led by a soundtrack.

when ever the traffic in the stock footage changes to the other side of the road, that's footage from a different country, HongKong or even Taiwan. places separate and distinct from china (at least until 97). if you see kodak signs your in HongKong, if every car is suddenly a subaru leone your in Taiwan.

Its worse here, our economy is like a flailing fish, fighting for its life. The normal state of the U.S. economy is actually very bad. Because of this it goes into convulsive spasms fighting to grow any way it can out of desperation. Tricks, gimmicks, rule changes try to stimulate the economy and prevent it from falling but they only bring temporary relief to people since, when you factor in inflation we are declining.

Very interesting and very well presented.

What is going on with the background music? It’s almost constantly clipping and distorted even though the volume is low.

So what I'm getting from this is Polymatter face reveal on next season of Jet Lag!?

You are one of the few reasons I still go on YT, really looking forward to your Rumble channel going live

Informative. Thank you

Imagine hearing about the upcoming China's collapse for 20+ years and still believing it... Meanwhile their economy grew tenfold.

Edit: I am misinformed about this; my impression apparently didn’t take into account post COVID shifts. Leaving my original post because I said what I said, but I appreciate people correcting me because I’m still interested in the topic ----- As the video alludes to, the property bubble problem is happening, perhaps on a smaller scale, in large cities across the western world. I would be genuinely interested in a video covering that as well. Manhattan development is currently full of enormous sterile condo buildings with hardly any permanent occupants

This was beautifully narrated - Kudos!!!

The music choice in this video is crazy! Definitely set a unique tone.

Ah, finally the "two more weeks" video you'd eventually needed to do.

Superb quality! Well structured and informative.

"Houses are for living in not for speculation" - Xi Jinping

10:25 the first two rules is a crazy benchmark on how much risk there was lol

This is a good thing for China. China's growth was so unsustainable and Xi Jinping knew it. Leaving the property bubble to grow continuously would result in far more catastrophic consequences than what we are seeing. Shanghai and Beijing have crazily unaffordable housing, leaving young people completely priced out the market. "Controlled demolition" is the best way to describe it, Wendover hit the nail on the head. Whatever is on the other end is unknown, but Xi Jinping has taken the painful yet necessary route to pop and deflate the Chinese property bubble.

*very detailed and useful*

Building apartments on a former pesticide plant. What could possibly go wrong?

I love you, Disembodied Voice. Thank you and the team.

I love the "finally" in the title. As if to say "It's about @#&*ing time China! Why you gotta scare us like that?!"

China has been collapsing since 2000 according to Americans😂😂😂

excellent production again

You never went into just why the Chinese central government specifically went after the housing sector, which is kind of pivotal to the entire video. A house is a home, not an asset to generate income. Not just to the situation in China either, but speculative house buying as assets that are effecting cities and countries world wide.

Its gonna have some significant implications, especially for global markets

This is the best historical explainer I've seen so far. I think most of us in the West know about China's "meteoric rise" but only in the abstract. I didn't realize how recently most of this happened and to what degree. It's stunning. It also helps explains why Western economies around the world followed China's lead - and "investor" greed - unfortunately believing that unrestrained property development would only ever increase in value without factoring in the vulgar debt-bubbles created by it and eventually negatively affecting the entire economy.

Good and concise analysis

Slowing down feels like an understatement looking at the ripple effect Evergrande will still have

I would be interested to see where Canada lands on that house price:GDP graph.

Great content as usual. One small (constructive) criticism: I found the background music to be a little too loud or rather distracting in this one. Would have preferred something more subdued.

That was a really great video, thank you for the insight!

Why is Country Garden not on your list of top 10 real estate developers?

Another Great Video!!!

Oh the Chinese told a company to fix their shit, let them fail, forced them to liquidate, repaid creditors, and sent people to jail? That's crazy bro. *People that lived through 2008 in the US scream internally*

Not sure if you're already aware, but the background music is quite distorted. Sounds like it is clipping.

Fascinating and educational video, thank you!

90% did not have access to piped gass? Well In Norway is basically 0%

The background music seems really distorted in this video. Makes it hard to focus on what's being said at times. :/

i love how simple ideas can create complex macro economic issues. everything thats going on here makes intuitive sense if you were to map it out with beans. its all cause and effect - straight forward in a way that i love, but lots of unintended consequences. interesting but very complicated

Spain had a similar issue

Thank you for this, it's refreshing to find a non-clickbaity, non catastrophising take on the topic (and thank you too for not screaming in the thumbnail!)

Feels like the background music is a store brand Interstellar soundtrack.

4:15 - - top 10 largest real estate companies

10/10 video absolute banger as always top 3 favorite yt channels.

7:53 I'm interested if in those "Years to afford a home" the average income is after taxes? Also those years are years with no other cost(living expenses etc.) other than payment for the apartment/house?

Good summary of the economic side of things, but could use a footnote somewhere about how this boom also fueled "tofu dregs" projects which accelerated the decrease in home buying as those risks became more well known.

Would you ever do a video on Aircraft maintenance?

Oh yeah, just so you now the Financial Times just reported that Chinese economy grew 5.3% this quarter, exceeding expectations

What about the building's quality ? I saw some posts about buildings beeing rushed and therefore, crumbling very easily, is it a part of it ?

At the very beginning of your description of how the selling/borrowing system worked, my very first thought was "So who's checking for the property sales slowing down, and how will they even stop the debt spiral in this financial pyramid-esque building scheme?" The answer is: no one. No one will check or try to stop this obviously incredibly flawed system. I almost wonder if it was allowed to happen to some degree, knowing that nameless, faceless, powerless people will take the brunt of the damage when the inevitable end of the line finally comes.

Fun fact: China's exports increased 10.3% in the first two months of this year.

First documentary I’ve watched in a while that actually educated me, instead of stating the obvious and leaving the fundamental drivers of an issue unexplained. Well done

"Might not get it back"😂 More like "almost certainly won't get it back" Even a loan from a trusted lender like the Fed has a risk of default so you might not get it back. That's what "might" implies, possible but unlikely.

Oh it's slowing down? I thought it crashed like a year ago and they began living in post-apocalyptic conditions by now.

Happy to see it

love the video you should do a video on Norway their economy is really interesting

Loved the analysis 🎉

What is the purpose of using video sources 30 years ago?

A luxury apartment built on the site of a pesticide plant. I will give that one a miss.

Very interesting topic. I knew there was a housing crisis of sorts but didn't really understand it before this. The music throughout sounds distorted to me and is distracting because of it. Not sure if that's just me but I heard it on my phone and my computer.

I REALLY like this video. This is the first time I heard about the CCP’s three red lines, which adds a lot of very valuable context to this whole situation. The CCP is deliberately popping the property bubble before it got bigger. It’s still causing problems for the Chinese economy, but China isn’t about to fall apart or anything. As a Hong Konger, if that’s a good or bad thing, idk.

Anyone else waiting for Wendover's take on the current Boeing crisis?

Thank you. I have heard so much about China's real estate bubble over the past few years, but didn't really understand why it was so big. This was much better than in the news.

America and countries in Europe have experienced similar situations, when manufacturers of shoes, clothes, home appliances, etc., flocked out of those countries. Korea and Japan have also experienced the same thing. But the situation did not make these countries experience an economic crisis or bankruptcy. Why? Because it is a matter of competitive advantage, comparative advantage, and a matter of ordinary market mechanisms. If it is now starting to happen in China, it is indeed time for China to experience a similar transition after years of mass low-wage labor-based industries. When China starts producing airplanes, electric cars, superconductors, etc. it is just a necessity for a country that has entered the "advanced" level. Selling 1 airplane is worth more than selling thousands of shoes from a dozen shoe factories in the Ningbo area. That's also why America can still able to compete with China in term of GDP etc, even though the low-labor manufacturing industry left America many years ago.

americans doing propaganda against china is annoying...

Thank you for this video, it is to date, the most informative on the reason of China's housing crises that I have seen. Keep up the great work

Economic investigator Frank G Melbourne Australia is following this very informative content cheers Frank 😊

I thought that Country Garden is/was the largest property developer, not EverGrand. I'm right, or wrong ?

Another 5% banger 😂 make a video comparing US UK GER now

most efficient command economy: