China's economic model is faltering.

The long days of summer are proving to be rather too long for the government in Beijing. In an attempt to stabilise the faltering real estate market, the authorities announced earlier this week a modest decline in interest rates that was underwhelming in scale and intent.

Those who recall the bad old days in which the west was buffeted by successive crises such as those involving Northern Rock, Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers will recognise the futility of lower interest rates in stemming systemic problems in real estate and finance when the problem has nothing to do with interest rates being too high. And so it is in contemporary China, where the government is battling to stabilise an unstable...