This Time is Different Syndrome in China

Jim Chanos stated recently that he thought China was Dubai times 1,000. Many people have argued whether he is right or wrong since his comment. I noticed that the arguments on both sides seemed to have more of personal bias and do not provide statistics to support their argument. I thought the best way to see if Chanos is right is to examine his argument in a rational way and look at some numbers and compare them with the United States at the peak of its housing bubble.

I originally planned on writing this article with extensive data on housing metrics, loan metrics and other numbers to judge the validity of the argument. I wanted to compare China’s numbers with the numbers the United States had at the peak of the housing bubble,