China Is Set to Suffer the Skyscraper Curse

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July 30 (Bloomberg) -- Auditors seeking to head off aChinese crash are rushing to scrutinize the debt-swollen booksof the country’s local governments. Economists are poring overstatistics, bond spreads, electricity gauges and stockvaluations. They might all have more luck if they got theirnoses out of the books and looked up.

On July 20, the Broad Group broke ground on Sky City on theoutskirts of the south-central city of Changsha. The skyscraperwill rise 838 meters (2,749 feet) into the heavens to become theworld’s tallest building. If that weren’t feat enough, theproject aims to wrap up construction in 90 days and at almosthalf the cost of Dubai’s Burj Khalifa, which it would top.