E-MAIL THIS LINK
To: 

China's investment boom starts to unravel
In an unguarded moment in 2007, the man anointed to take over next year as the helmsman of the world's second-largest economy revealed his doubts about China's economic growth statistics.

The country's official gross domestic product figures are "man-made" and therefore unreliable, Li Keqiang told the US ambassador at the time, adding with a smile that he regarded them as being "for reference only".
Man-made in the same way statistics from the Soviet Union were always man-made -- that is, phony. Our CIA believed the Soviets then and apparently believe the Chinese today. Problem is we don't have a modern Daniel Patrick Moynihan to call attention to the stupidity.
When evaluating the speed of economic growth Mr Li, who is expected formally to replace Wen Jiabao as China's Premier next March, said he focused instead on three sets of data -- electricity consumption, rail cargo volumes and disbursement of bank loans.

If Mr Li's assessment is correct the Chinese economy is in a lot more trouble than headline GDP figures have indicated until now.

Less closely watched economic data released in recent days, including figures for electricity, rail cargo and bank loans, have all shown a steep drop in activity that appears to have caught policymakers by surprise.
Posted by: 2012-05-14
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=344634