As editor of Some of the top headlines on Wall Street this week actually were generated in China, and it was interesting to see the coverage from this side of the world.
One of the biggest was the news that Jianyin Investment Co. Ltd., China's new state-owned investment company, was going to take a $3 billion stake in Blackstone Group, a New York-based private equity company.
Blackstone owns hundreds of billions in investments, including a handful in the plastics business: Klockner Pentaplast GmbH & Co., Celanese AG and Graham Packaging Co. LP.
Seeing first-hand just a small fraction of the amount of economic growth and investment in China, I'm less surprised that the state has this kind of money to make into a company like Blackstone. Some of the coverage I've seen about Blackstone's IPO makes me wonder why anyone would invest in such a scheme. But when you have as much money as the West is pumping into China right now, you can't invest it all in McDonald's franchises and T-bills.
You have to bet big.