The Five Shanghai Themes

This paper was written for the occasion of the 3rd Great Minds China Forum in Shanghai, May 2017 and presented there. It discusses five important macroeconomic themes. First, the growth in China relative to TFP. Second, house price and financial markets booms and busts, e.g. in Shanghai. Third, aging and the savings glut. Forth, the macroeconomics of health care. Fifth, the macroeconomics of global warming. I did not issue it as working paper back then. In hindsight, quite a number of issues raised concerning China turned out to be quite prescient. I therefore decided to herewith distribute the original 2017 draft unchanged as a working paper now, as a contribution to the discussion of economic affairs in China and beyond.