Country Garden collapse sparks contagion fears as China economy tanks

News Snapshot:

China’s economy is tanking. Investors are running scared. Consumers are stashing their cash. And everybody’s afraid of what Chairman Xi Jinping’s next arbitrary reaction will be. Country Garden – the country’s last surviving mega property developer – is in trouble. Two years after the collapse of its competitor Evergrande, it failed to raise enough cash on Monday to meet scheduled bond repayments. Only a 30-day grace period remains between solvency and default. Now, fears of economic “contagion” – where one major failure triggers a broader collapse – are surging. Already, state-controlled developer Sino-Ocean has missed $A32.5 million in interest payments....