Subsidies no panacea for rising prices

Sometimes when economists talk, they just like to talk in order to suit their target audience - to depict a picture it expects to see, whether it is one of an imminent storm or one of a fine day.

This is perhaps a disease for every profession when the criteria of success are tied so tightly with accepted performance rather than fresh ideas.

One of the things that the Chinese audience is being frequently told is that this country is now faced by a great danger, and that is inflation. In order to keep this economy competitive, the government will have to do everything it can to slow down the price rises, if not somehow arrest the trend entirely.