China once beckoned to big Western banks as a mecca for quick profits. This is well exemplified by the Evergrande Real Estate Group, in Hong Kong. The likes of Merrill Lynch and Deutsche Bank rushed to lend the land acquirer more than $400 million. They wanted a quick, gold-rush sort of IPO. Back then it all seemed possible.

A year later, as the New York Times recounts, "China's housing market has collapsed, Evergrande is mired in debt and the Wall Street bankers are facing huge losses because the company never sold stock to the public." The total losses to big banks may exceed $10 billion. This played out in other ways, as well. Morgan Stanley, JPMorgan Asset Management and others rushed into real estate investments, which seem sort of dubious now, the paper notes. 

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