I recently had the pleasure of spending two splendid evenings in NYC with Kiron Sarkar, in from London. Serious investment banker (ex-Rothschild, worked on a lot privatization deals all over Europe) and seriously wired. I really learn a lot reading and talking with him. He has a rather interesting litany as to why he is bearish on China. Then I had lunch with Leland Miller, who is launching the new Beige Book of China service (your basic $25,000 a quarter, in case you are interested), where they survey almost 2,000 business execs to get a feel for what is happening on the ground as opposed to what the government says. While no China bull, he says that as of last quarter it was not all that bad. And then we contrast his views with those of Simon Hunt, who gives us a report that sounds more like Kiron's. Simon has been on the ground in China for decades, visiting 6-8 times a year, physically going to factories and manufacturing plants and counting inventory, talking to execs he has grown older with. And his report suggests a more difficult time for China than we're reading about in the press. A short read but one that is making me pay attention. The world does not need a 4th major economic problem.