Because of worldwide demand for their cheap labor. That labor has to work somewhere, especially in a high-tech economy. For high-tech jobs, they need modern buildings and infrastructure.

As the demand presses them, wages will rise relative to the rest of the world. However, if they artificially limit the amount of industrial expansion they are willing to "allow", then wages will not rise as fast and they can continue to offer cheap labor. But this labor will not have a place to work, conditions will continue to be bad.

Based on all the hype I'm hearing, I refuse to believe that developers in China are building "speculatively", which is what gets economies in trouble.

Demand for U.S. office and warehouse space was dropping in 2000-2003 and is up only modestly, but our developers here are still building like crazy because of low capital costs. We need some inflation to slow down our building.

But, Scott, maybe you're right on the labor. Maybe we need a major conflict or plague to kill off a few million people so that labor is back in demand again. Otherwise, we all just get a little cheaper every year.

Glen Austin