Too Many Skyscrapers Often Spells Doom: Barclays

Barclays Capital fears impending financial crises in China and India, based on ... skyscrapers. The tall buildings are linked to such crises, and China and India are building a lot of them, the investment bank explains in its annual Skyscraper Index. A "skyscraper building boom" often reflects "a widespread misallocation of capital and an impending economic correction," the company says in its report.

The index shows "an unhealthy correlation between construction of the next world's tallest building and an impending financial crisis—New York 1930; Chicago 1974; Kuala Lumpur 1997, and Dubai 2010," the report notes. India is currently building the world's second-largest skyscraper, AFP reports. Barclays warns of a "building bubble" both there and in China. "The writing, so to speak, would seem to be already on the glass curtain walling," says the report. (More skyscraper stories.)