Amerika

Might as well just send Ghengis Khan a “Missing You” Hallmark card:

China’s economy is showing “early signs” of stabilizing as government-backed investment counters a slump in exports, the World Bank says.

The lender cut its forecast for the nation’s economic growth this year to 6.5 percent in a quarterly report released in Beijing today. Its estimate was 7.5 percent in November.

China is weathering the global slowdown better than many nations because its banks were largely unscathed by the financial crisis and the government quickly implemented a 4 trillion yuan ($585 billion) stimulus plan, the lender said.

Bloomberg

And now that they’re on the mend, they’re doing what all smart people do during a downturn — snap up investments that will magically get more valuable when the economy recovers even a fraction of its value:

Chinese companies have been on a shopping spree in the past month, snapping up tens of billions of dollars’ worth of key assets in Iran, Brazil, Russia, Venezuela, Australia and France in a global fire sale set off by the financial crisis.

The deals have allowed China to lock up supplies of oil, minerals, metals and other strategic natural resources it needs to continue to fuel its growth. The sheer scope of the agreements marks a shift in global finance, roiling energy markets and feeding worries about the future availability and prices of those commodities in other countries that compete for them, including the United States.

WAPO

The balance of power shifts to the East, because the West is neurotic and, dependent on neurotic lowest common denominator public opinion, can’t make the decisions necessary to act intelligently and decisively.