Wild, Wooly Financing Threads Unravel in Erdos

Erdos is a city surrounded by Inner Mongolia's vast grasslands, where grazing flocks of sheep provide a fine cashmere wool that's made the city famous.

Today, textile mills in Erdos continue to produce some of the world's best cashmere goods.

But in recent years new business sectors with far more wealth-making power have eclipsed sheep and wool – and have been blamed for turning this city of soft cashmere into a hardened center for financial risk-taking.