Communist Party

While in the US, the economist profession has seen a devstating drop in reputation over the past few years as the accuracy of economists' predictions has drastically suffered under the "New Normal", at least they are allowed to opine on virtually every matter without fear of consequences. That, however, is not the case in China where a local professor has been fired after criticizing Chairman Mao Zedong on his 123rd birthday in a commentary he posted online that has enraged leftists.

For years we've been writing about "fake data" coming out of China's economic reports.  As an example, we reported the following chart on import data back in April (see "The Chart Proving That China's Trade Data Has Never Been This Fake").  Can anyone spot the outlier?

Submitted by John Rubino via DollarCollapse.com,

Something interesting has happened. China earlier this year responded to falling stock prices by borrowing a trillion dollars and spending it on commodities, boosting the prices of iron ore, oil, copper, etc., and giving the global economy a patina of recovery.

Nothing unusual so far. China did the same thing in response to 2008’s Great Recession, and the world breathed an appreciative sigh of relief, ignoring the massive new leverage that the policy required.

Several weeks ago, Chinese President Xi Jinping paid a visit to CCTV and People’s Daily to tell them what a great job they’re doing. The feeling, The Shanghaiist quipped, was mutual.

The media, Xi said while making the rounds, should “reflect the will of the Party, mirror the views of the Party, preserve the authority of the Party, preserve the unity of the Party and achieve love of the Party, protection of the Party and acting for the Party.”

So what you’re saying is that it’s all about the Party?

Submitted by Raul Ilargi Meijer via The Automatic Earth blog,