"Economist" magazine,Dec.22-Jan.4,2008 issue

On the cover page,a photo of Chairman Mao with a red cap for holiday greetings to all to imply China's role in the field of economics.(The East is Red?) Perhaps the editor is aware of such new realities in economics. On page 68: Recalculating China's GDP: China's economy is smaller than was thought.Previous estimates of China's Purchasing Power Parities(PPP) were largely guesswork. Now the World Bank has produced new calculations based on a survey of prices of over 1000 goods and services in 146 countries including China for the first time. On this basis, China's GDP in 2005 was $5.3 trillion, compared with $2.2 trillion using market exchange rates and $8.9 trillion using previous PPP estimates. This was still well below America's $12.4 trillion that year i.e. We are No.1 as the global leader of economic clout per se as most Americans would believe or would be led to believe! My comment: Such basis is still questionable due to folks' lifestyle,custom and tradition of China. Prof. John K. Galbraith stated decades ago that we cannot measure the immeasurables. Cf.a book review of "Almost Everyone's Guide to Economics" published by Atlantic Economic Journal,September 1979. In an article published by Atlantic Economic Journal in 1970s,I raised PPP issue and another article by Lawrence Summers in 1990s mentioned PPP with similar queries. President Bush sent a letter dated September 7, 2007 re Chinese Culture Festival apropos of tradition and culture of the Chinese in America in making contributions to the legacy of diversity with talent,vision and determination. Chinese Americans set a positive example for others and add to the success and prosperity of USA. My comment: Chinese in China are making contributions to China as empirical evidence with the tradition and culture that are impossible to be counted in numbers to show GDP per capita as the basis of standard of living. Any other scenarios would be scholarly exchange of ideas for our learning experience,indeed. Francis Shieh a.k.a. Xie Shihao on Friday,December 28, 2007.