China's Real Estate Bubble Hits Manhattan

``Fosun International Ltd., a Chinese conglomerate that invests in everything from steel to pharmaceuticals to Club Med, has agreed to buy the office tower at 1 Chase Manhattan Plaza from JPMorgan Chase & Co. for a whopping $725 million. This isn't an isolated incident... This time may be different, but I can't help but be reminded of other recent periods when wealthy foreigners splurged on premiere U.S. real estate. It was usually a sign of overheated capital markets in their home countries... Like the Arabs flush with oil money, the Japanese ended up having more capital to invest than good places to put it. Making matters worse, their spending pushed up the prices of every property they coveted far above any fundamental value.''