A few weeks ago, the WSJ announced that in the third quarter the growth rate of China’s economy had declined to 6.9% — the lowest rate since the financial crisis. Perhaps predictably, economist naysayers immediately piled on, questioning the accuracy of Chinese GDP estimates. This recent skepticism is nothing new. In the 90s, the World Bank questioned Chinese economic figures, and since then, there has been a steady drumbeat in the press questioning the reliability of key Chinese statistics. So the conventional wisdom is that the Chinese numbers are bunk. Is this a great story or is this truly evidence-based ... (full story)