Shanghai Surprise

The Shanghai Stock Exchange Index has lost 52.4 percent of its value since Oct. 17, 2007, a substantial rout. As far as I can tell no one outside of China seems too worried about it. Perhaps it is just an overdue correction, perhaps it is the government's goal to pop a bubble (monetary policy has been tightening for some time), and perhaps the rate of stock ownership in China is so low that, as many suggest, it doesn't amount to much.

Or perhaps not. We shall see.