Now that the Olympics are over, China is also concerned about slower growth. On Tuesday, J.P. Morgan reported that Beijing is considering a stimulus package of up to $58 billion, in addition to other monetary-policy-easing measures. J.P. Morgan's head of Chinese Research, Frank Gong, wrote that "the top leadership is carefully considering an economic stimulus package of between 200 billion and 400 billion yuan" ($29 to $58 billion). That's in addition to 600 billion yuan ($87 billion) recently spent on rebuilding China's earthquake-affected areas.

In addition, China has increased its power prices for the second time in two months, by raising grid rates by about 5% to head off a looming power crisis. About 80% of China's electricity is generated from coal-fired plants, and the Beijing Summer Olympics has exacerbated China's growing power supply problems. To avoid electricity shortages in Beijing, coal stockpiles at major power plants in Beijing and Tianjin roughly tripled from their pre-game levels, according to Japanese business daily Nikkei. This caused electricity disruptions in Shandong Province.

Since China is pumping tons of coal ash into the air, it's possible that China may be helping to cool the entire planet, due to more particles in the air. In fact, the whole world cooled during the first half of 2008--the coolest six months in at least five years, according to the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). The WMO added that the rest of 2008 would almost certainly be cooler than recent years, although temperatures remain above historical averages.