Today I went to the Chinese Consulate to pickup our Visas. I had dropped off our Passports last week and we now have them back – Visas installed. The Consulate is on Geary Street near Japantown and the Visa office is jumping. But everything went very quickly and I was in and out in about 20 minutes and $260 lighter.

The visit to the Consulate was a little strange because there are protesters out in front being watched by a pair of menacing foo dogs – a reminder that China is not your run of the mill liberal democracy.

In a very interesting article on China, James Fallows who is living there says Idle factories, moored container ships, widespread bankruptcies, massive migration back to the hinterlands, strangely clean air—the signs of depression are everywhere in China. Because it makes so many of the goods the world isn’t buying now, China stands to be worse hit than the rest of the world —just as America was during the Depression, when it was the world’s sweatshop. Snap – OK, now I get it: that's how we became the world's industrial powerhouse. From the 1880's to the 1950's, we made all the cheap shit the world wanted just like China does now.