The Big Picture: calls bullshit on china growth

Barry Riholtz is a great read. Sometimes TBP can be downright hilarious and clever.

Barry runs 5th grade math to debunk popular myth of china growth (23%!!!). His findings are that either a/ china is lying through its teeth b/its monetary mass has grown by 23%.

Of course it is c/ all of the above. By controlling monetary mass, china controls monetary gauges of economic activity. Much like the FED enjoys this role in the US. Barry basically is saying that all of the growth could have been a monetary mirage engineered by the financial authorities.

Just like it was in the US. What with loose monetary policy since deregulation happened. In the US the monetary mass was set by the private sector. Naked CDS in default, they are the latest in financial aphrodisiacs. Money-vampires, they may have caused the liquidity drain that triggered the quant-panic implosion of aug 07.

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