“How did you go bankrupt?” Bill asked. “Two ways,” Mike said. “Gradually, then suddenly.” These lines from Ernest Hemingway’s classic novel “Fiesta” (USA title ‘The Sun also Rises’), summarise where we now are with Evergrande’s likely default in China. It did indeed begin “gradually” at first – starting in February 2016. As I noted here […]
Chemicals and the Economy
An Evergrande default could reset the Chinese, and global, economy
China’s economy has been ‘subprime on steroids’ since the financial crisis in 2008. And essentially, this has morphed into a giant Ponzi scheme, where some property developers used deposits paid by new buyers to finance the construction of apartments they’d already sold. Now the world’s most indebted property developer, Evergrande, has warned it may default […]
PlasticsEurope calls for mandatory 30% recycling target for packaging by 2030
The European plastics industry last week took the crucial first step in moving away from virgin plastics towards a circular economy. It supported the Commission’s proposal for a mandatory 30% recycled content in plastics packaging by 2030. And it argued that this could only be achieved by the use of chemical recycling. It is hard […]
Housing markets face long-term downturn as central banks abandon stimulus
Last month saw the beginning of the end for the central banks’ 20-year experiment with stimulus. They thought they could overcome demographic pressures from ageing populations by printing bucket-loads of money at zero interest rates to support housing and stock markets. Now they are finally realising this was wishful thinking. The policy reversal began with […]