China's eagerly anticipated "hard landing" hasn't happened yet, and recent indicators make me wonder (not for the first time) if it ever will. In the past two months, the Chinese economy has actually shown signs of accelerating.
Constant pessimism in financial markets about the country's prospects is only partly guided by economic analysis. There's also the faith-based view that growth as rapid as China's simply can't go on — and that a nondemocratic country really shouldn't expect to prosper.
Many skeptics have been highlighting China's impending collapse for almost as long as I have been following the country. Maybe the skeptics should be viewed a little more skeptically.