"Golf in China - Birdies, bribes and bulldozers"

[David_Tepper]

Review in the Economist of a new book (The Forbidden Game: Golf and the Chinese Dream) by Dan Washburn:

http://www.economist.com/news/books-and-arts/21604075-what-rise-golf-says-about-economic-change-middle-kingdom-birdies-bribes-and

[Peter Pallotta]

Thanks for the link, David. I've read the Economist for years because, whatever my biases or the magazines' may be, the writing is always crisp and clear. I'm sure the story of golf in China is very nuanced/complicated - perhaps made less so in the book and then again in this short article. But the article does give one a flavour for the world there, and it jibes with what I know of the country through my work. Whatever the truth about or the future of golf is there, it sure is fascinating. Imagine: in decades to come, China is big enough and has enough people and golfers and courses and money floating around to actually be home to the world's largest tour, almost dwarfing the PGA, European and Asian tours combined - the Chinese Tour!

Peter 

[Jaeger Kovich]

I'm 100% buying this. I spent the better part of 18 months there, you can't make this stuff up!

Can you imagine telling someone to go fill in all the bunkers they just built? Something you spent time, money, effort, and the effort you cant even calculate because its already 10 times harder than it would have been at home. Maybe it was even something you were really proud of. Then its just gone! The first time something like this happens, it is almost incomprehensible to westerner. Then it becomes almost standard procedure.

Unfortunately, so much of this stuff is lost on most, because it is so non-sensical to most Westerners, they just look at you with a blank stare like you are crazy!

[Nigel Islam]

So are these courses being built in China going to be sustainable? Is there going to be another real estate hit to the golf world in China?

[David_Tepper]

Jaeger K.,

Please do let us know what you think of the book once you have read it. I will look forward to hearing how what the book describes matches up to your experiences in China.

DT

[Tony_Muldoon]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/10877555/Why-China-went-to-war-against-golf.html

Another book?

[Adam Lawrence]

Same book.

[Lou_Duran]

I'm 100% buying this. I spent the better part of 18 months there, you can't make this stuff up!

Can you imagine telling someone to go fill in all the bunkers they just built? Something you spent time, money, effort, and the effort you cant even calculate because its already 10 times harder than it would have been at home. Maybe it was even something you were really proud of. Then its just gone! The first time something like this happens, it is almost incomprehensible to westerner. Then it becomes almost standard procedure.

Unfortunately, so much of this stuff is lost on most, because it is so non-sensical to most Westerners, they just look at you with a blank stare like you are crazy!

Why are you perplexed?  Our Western social democracies spend hundreds of billions annually on mostly worthless endeavors under the name of "stimulus".  Indeed, it is the basis of Keynesian economics and why Lord Keynes is so highly regarded by the political classes for providing the academic gravitas to buy votes and lifelong tenure.  China with a huge trade surplus largely at the expense of the vast majority of its people can get away with it for some time.  I wonder how much longer the rest of us have.  Bastiat's "broken window fallacy" argument or Hayek's ignored advice on allowing markets to mostly self-correct are not nearly as sexy or endearing to the masses as saying YES to spending other people's money.

During the Depression, digging ditches and then refilling them, as the theory went, was stimulus because it provided income to otherwise unemployed diggers who then spent it in the economy.  Not long ago, House Minority Leader Pelosi told us that unemployment compensation is among the best type of economic stimulus and a great job creation policy.  At least the Chinese and FDR might have enhanced the health of their respective constituents vis-à-vis exercise (from digging and refilling bunkers and ditches).   

I find the following amusing and instructive:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d0nERTFo-Sk   

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GTQnarzmTOc

[Jaeger Kovich]

I'm 100% buying this. I spent the better part of 18 months there, you can't make this stuff up!

Can you imagine telling someone to go fill in all the bunkers they just built? Something you spent time, money, effort, and the effort you cant even calculate because its already 10 times harder than it would have been at home. Maybe it was even something you were really proud of. Then its just gone! The first time something like this happens, it is almost incomprehensible to westerner. Then it becomes almost standard procedure.

Unfortunately, so much of this stuff is lost on most, because it is so non-sensical to most Westerners, they just look at you with a blank stare like you are crazy!

Why are you perplexed?  Our Western social democracies spend hundreds of billions annually on mostly worthless endeavors under the name of "stimulus".  Indeed, it is the basis of Keynesian economics and why Lord Keynes is so highly regarded by the political classes for providing the academic gravitas to buy votes and lifelong tenure.  China with a huge trade surplus largely at the expense of the vast majority of its people can get away with it for some time.  I wonder how much longer the rest of us have.  Bastiat's "broken window fallacy" argument or Hayek's ignored advice on allowing markets to mostly self-correct are not nearly as sexy or endearing to the masses as saying YES to spending other people's money.

During the Depression, digging ditches and then refilling them, as the theory went, was stimulus because it provided income to otherwise unemployed diggers who then spent it in the economy.  Not long ago, House Minority Leader Pelosi told us that unemployment compensation is among the best type of economic stimulus and a great job creation policy.  At least the Chinese and FDR might have enhanced the health of their respective constituents vis-à-vis exercise (from digging and refilling bunkers and ditches).   

I find the following amusing and instructive:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d0nERTFo-Sk   

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GTQnarzmTOc

I'm not quite old enough to remember FDR

I was 25 when I first got there, and I was spending more time studying golf and Mandarin rather than economics and politics. (I probably wouldn't have got the job otherwise!) I learned a lot about the culture after I arrived. I'm more interested in these subjects now, but I'd still say that is pretty rare for my age group... I Listened to the Art of War on audiobook in the dozer!

[Lou_Duran]

Jaeger,

I am not of that age group either but FDR was my father-in-law's hero and he never passed on the opportunity to sing his virtues.  Bill grew up in the Depression and was an outstanding man.  Though we were political antagonists, we co-existed happily.  He understood that as he was a product of his upbringing, his circumstances, I was as well.  He paid homage in Plains; me in Simi Valley.  Hopefully you won't in Beijing.

  

[Jaeger Kovich]

Lou - The courses that were built by the labor unions in those days seem to mostly have been building public courses, or at least courses where a middle class person might be able to at least consider playing. The courses being built in China are really only meant for the VIP crowd, even in their public/resort models, and the people building them have no chance or being able to afford it. Even golf addicts, and people in the field, didn't want to play their rates, and I'm from NYC where we overpay for everything!... No I was not in Beijing.