The unsurprising result of this inefficient system is massive debt. China’s total debt jumped eightfold between 2008 and 2019 and exceeded 335 percent of GDP on the eve of the COVID-19 pandemic.69 No country has racked up so much debt so fast in the past 100 years outside of wartime or the mega-shock of the pandemic.70 The problem has become so bad that roughly a quarter of China’s thousand biggest firms owe more money in interest than they earn in gross profits. Half of all new loans in China are being used to pay interest on old loans, a phenomenon known as “Ponzi finance.”71 Many bankers—93
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