StankyPigano

Asia: The Next Big Bubble

Ditto to Jeff Nielson's response.

Here's a little perspective: the U.S. consumes about 25 barrels of oil per capita annually. Japanese and European annual oil consumption per capta is in the mid teens. China's oil consumption in 2007 was just over 2 barrels per capita!

With real savings and real wealth creation, there is also considerable headroom for demand growth before it can even remotely be considered a bubble. It is a mistake which defies all Chinese history to assume they will continue to rely on exports as Japan has.

As an aside, I think the reason China is stockpiling copper and other resources is because they see the recent political changes in India. If India decides to build 50,000 miles of roads over the next 5 years like China just did, there won't be enough of ANYTHING in the commodities pits to meet the incremental demand...