J Johnson

China's New Economic Model: Moving Away from Export Led Growth

This sounds a lot like the worship for "new" Japanese ways of doing business trumpeted in the 1980's -- which amounted to nothing more frankly than a few local customs. Lifetime employment, taking the long view, high use of debt, turned out to be not all that they were cracked up to be. Japan was different, it was special, a recession in Japan meant 4% growth. Why? It was "different"!
China's economic model is nearly identical to that of the Asian Tigers, which copied it from Japan. Stimulate exports, depresss consumption, high savings rate, undervalued currency etc. Sure, there are some differences such as the starting position of a decripit financial system, but so far the strategy amounts primarily to harnessing foreign demand to pull yourself up. The importing countries benefit too via low priced goods, but this is not innovation.
Soon our bookstore shelves will be full of books by business gurus telling us about "the Chinese way". Argh.