Is China's Economy Shrinking? . . . Is China the Latest Ten Foot Tall Illusion?

Adam and Jeff,  who are both known for their fondness for Chinese cuisine, wander into the debate over whether China is fudging its economic statistics to puff up its presence on the global scene.  They discuss how the media and the government have sounded the alarm about a series of ten-foot-tall adversaries beginning with the Soviet Union in the 1950s, Japan in the 1980s and China in the 2000s to prove that the United States is going down the tubes.  The fact that China reports steady growth year after year, decade after decade is questioned and compared to the above-market financial returns that were claimed by Bernie Madoff for nearly a generation.  They cite studies by economists showing that China's real growth is probably at least 2% per year less than that claimed by the CCP, thus indicating China's economy may be much smaller than it has previously claimed.  Adam and Jeff also talk about China's dropping its youth unemployment statistics because they exceeded 20% and point out that it is nothing new for governments to bend the truth with the selective use of statistics.