Is China headed for a boom or bust? Depending on whom you read, the world's most populous nation is on the cusp of either a debt meltdown, or a middle-class expansion.
I've written before about the possibility of China suffering its own "Minsky moment" -- the point when a debt-driven speculative bubble comes to a sudden and nasty end. Yet there's also evidence the country may be approaching something of a Henry Ford moment, when a manufacturing-based economy matures to point where workers can afford to buy the products they're making. The reality, as unsatisfying as it may be to those looking for a dramatic headline, is probably somewhere in between.
