Reasons to Worry About China Stocks

This column was originally published on RealMoney on April 23 at 9:16 a.m. EDT. It's being republished as a bonus for TheStreet.com readers. For more information about subscribing to RealMoney, please click here.

Have you noticed the breathless way in which people talk about China these days? In many ways, it reminds me of how folks used to talk about the Internet.

In the late 1990s, we kept hearing that the Internet was going to change everything. (It has.) We often heard about the massive "buildout" that was going to take place in the technology world. (It has.) And we always heard people on Wall Street make such comparisons as, "Yahoo!'s market cap is equal to the GDP of Finland, Sweden and Denmark," or something equally ridiculous to explain why Yahoo! was headed for the sky.

Well, you can imagine my reaction when I heard someone on CNBC note that China's GDP was equivalent to the GDP of three lesser countries. At least this time around, they're comparing apples to apples, but seriously, the last time I heard such comparisons was late 1999 with regard to Internet stocks. ...