Stimulate this

To the thrill and excitement of all, the National People's Congress began its annual pooh-bah Parliamentary get-together this week.

Of course, this year's conference is more than a CCP rubber-stamping love-in: The jinrong weiji has ensured the world was watching to see what Hu, Wen & Co. have to offer, hoping whatever life raft they offer China will be big and bouyant enough for the rest of the global economy to hang on for dear life.

Or, you know, whatever.

To be honest, I don't know nearly enough about economics to make an educated assessment of the mechanics of China's economic outlook. Then again, there isn't really much to go on, given Wen Jiabao's speil:

“The external economic environment has become more serious, and uncertainties have increased significantly. ... Continuous drop in economic growth rate due to the impact of the global financial crisis has become a major problem affecting the overall situation. This has resulted in excess production capacity in some industries, caused some enterprises to experience operating difficulties and exerted severe pressure on employment”

OK, so that isn't a newsflash for anyone, nor is his declaration that the government will do its best to keep people employed, diversity export markets and somehow convince consumers to buy stuff.

It isn't surprising that China's trying to gloss over any suggestion its economy is tanking with the same craptacular spluttering as the rest of the world; nor is it a shock that Wen's reassurances are short on details and long on platitudes. This is how the NCP rolls, promises of transparency be damned.

What is clear, however, is that there won't be any more mammon manna from heaven--at least not from Beijing's pocketbook. Despite hints last week the previous stimulus package could as much as double in size (that'd make a honkin 8 trillion yuan, if you're counting), it looks like the economy is going to have to cope with a measly 4 trillion--most of it dedicated to infrastructure and the like, and much of it coming from local governments and private sources (as opposed to the central government responsible for all these cash-rich promises).

Will this be enough to keep China's economy steaming along at a pace to satisfy anxious consumers, panicky unemployed migrants and the freaked-out and freakily volatile financial markets?

Maybe. But I'm going to guess no.