Conversation in the coffee shops of Palo Alto is starting to sound more like the talk in the milk tea shops of Hong Kong. It is all about Chinese money going into the property market and driving prices to record highs – though to be fair it is tech industry money, as well as Chinese money, that is a factor in California.
The wave of money finding its way to Silicon Valley is part of a general surge of capital leaving China.
The timing, though, is odd. Usually it is periods of political uncertainty and economic slowdown that lead to such outflows. These outflows by rights should have tapered off before the end of the year as has been the pattern in the past.