RE:I'M NOT SURE IS THIS A GOOD INDICATOR?I think it is "bad" bad. I recall doing some reading a while back that these companies are incentous - they all hold each other's debt. Along with that is a huge off-book problem in China where the true overhang in the economy isn't well known until things start to fall apart.
Part of the rescue the politbureau forced upon other real estate companies was to help prop up Evergrande. Now they see their money going "poof".
I am surprised it lasted as long as it did. As the biggest of the bigs, it will now expose the other smaller companies that would otherwise be calling themselves "solvent" because supposedly they had "good debt" in Evergrande. Now they're exposed and trying to stay afloat with the legs kicked out from under them.
When the US experienced '08, they had the wherewithal to know how to keep the economy afloat through quantitative easing. China has none of the chops needed when it comes to capitalist economic policy. They try playing the game but in the end they can't help but keeping their thumb on the scale and taking what's not theirs.