This Trend Shows No Signs of Slowing

May 2, 2010
Back to the Future: $100 Oil May Return Soon

Consider that daily consumption of oil in the U.S. declined 5% to 18.7 million barrels over a 10–year period ending in 2009, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. By contrast, China's daily oil consumption increased 73% to 8.2 million barrels over the same period — and this trend shows no signs of slowing.

Time seems to believe that a billion lower paid Chinese will be driving cars and fueling them with very expensive gasoline.

Meanwhile...

May 2, 2010
Chinese allowed to bring own drinks to restaurants

'Why do customers have to spend so much more money on drinks that they can get at a lower price at the supermarket?' Huang Weiyu, a resident of Wuhan, was quoted as saying.

Let's go back to 2008 for some real perspective though.

November 20, 2008
China: Facing the Inevitable Crisis

Beijing’s policies are making it clear that the Chinese leadership does not really intend to let the current slowdown do what a slowdown is supposed to do: trim the fat and cull the weak, in the process increasing the efficiency of the economy and freeing up capital for new uses. Job security remains Beijing’s primary concern, which means increasingly inefficient and unprofitable businesses will continue to be propped up by government money, export rebates, and probably an expansion of bad loans. But these policies will only prolong and worsen the problems, no matter how many “new” infrastructure projects are launched in the stimulus package. At some point, China will have to pay the piper. And as the global financial crisis has shown, an added external pressure can quickly arise that the Chinese cannot control, but that forces them to respond while domestic problems rapidly deteriorate.

And lastly...

September 27, 1999
Get Rich.com

Why have a boss when you and three buddies can build your own publicly traded company in two years? Windows this big don't open very often. That's the reason people are flocking to the Valley, from Wall Street and Moscow and Bombay.

Did that trend also show no signs of slowing? It was Time's cover story.