Meltdown coming?

No, I don't think so, but it's certainly a time to: 1)Be careful if you're heavily into any speculative investments e.g. anything in China; or 2) Go after recently clobbered stocks that you recently thought were too pricey. I read the South China Morning Post this moring (Sunday) and saw that a Chinese professor is warning about the huge amount of risk in the Chinese property market given the amount and ease of borrowing in China. Beijing and Shanghai are so expensive right now that middle class households are mortgaged to the teeth, and I would guess that many, many people have taken on investment properties. Since the mainland Chinese have only ever experienced prosperity (I am obviously omitting that lovely period from 1949 to 1980 that was hell and not prosperity) they don't see that a bubble can burst. Here in Hong Kong I've experienced a few serious property and stock market bubbles, and have a strong sense that the local Hong Kongers are much wiser these days. Now mind you, they'll fleece every mainlander with a dollar to spend in Hong Kong, but they'll keep the dollar and use it to grow the economy instead of acting hot stock market tips from grandma and the taxi drivers.

Will the U.S. and global markets tank? I also don't think so. I think they'll soften, but the global economy is still growing, companies are investing and consumers are spending. The July retail numbers in the US were soft though, and that tells me that confidence perhaps is waning. People with paper gains on their home feel good about spending those gains and taking on debt. But now that those gains are going away, well I think most people tighten up their spending and are not so ebullient. It would be nice if the US media and politicians stopped all this nonsense about China and India somehow causing problems for the US. I guess they're easy targets in an election year.