12/07/10 Baltimore, Maryland – We’re starting to like this Julian Assange character, trumped-up rape charges in Sweden notwithstanding.
This morning, thanks to the diplomatic cables made public by Assange’s WikiLeaks, we’re getting a better look at GDP numbers published by China.
One of the cables tells of a dinner between the US ambassador to China and the head of the Communist Party. Li Keqiang is his name, and he’s widely expected to become the new premier in a little over two years.
Li says if he really wants the pulse of the economy, he needs to know just three things…
Heh, Li must be reading from our playbook: We check in from time to time on rail volume and other real-world economic indicators that can’t be massaged by government statisticians.
“By looking at these three figures,” the cable says, “Li said he can measure with relative accuracy the speed of economic growth. All other figures, especially GDP statistics, are ‘for reference only,’ he said smiling,”
Heh. Just like the Bureau of Labor Statistics!
Addison Wiggin
for The Daily Reckoning
Addison Wiggin
Addison Wiggin is the executive publisher of Agora Financial, LLC, a fiercely independent economic forecasting and financial research firm. He’s the creator and editorial director of Agora Financial’s daily 5 Min. Forecast and editorial director of The Daily Reckoning. Wiggin is the founder of Agora Entertainment, executive producer and co-writer of I.O.U.S.A., which was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival, the 2009 Critics Choice Award for Best Documentary Feature, and was also shortlisted for a 2009 Academy Award. He is the author of the companion book of the film I.O.U.S.A.and his second edition of The Demise of the Dollar… and Why it’s Even Better for Your Investments was just fully revised and updated. Wiggin is a three-time New York Times best-selling author whose work has been recognized by The New York Times Magazine, The Economist, Worth, The New York Times, The Washington Post as well as major network news programs. He also co-authored international bestsellers Financial Reckoning Day and Empire of Debt with Bill Bonner.
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Im begining to support this Assange guy. I guess I now see the global governmental system as the true enemy.
I like seeing that one man could make a difference in exposing them and I think that the governments feel even more keenly that they have to make an example of this guy because they’re trying to establish a world goevernment system where the individual is nothing.
Therefore he now has my moral support!