Electricity Use Declines

This report from Communist China: Electric consumption is down 4% from last year. How the economy overall can be reported to show growth in the face of falling electricity use is perplexing. This simplest explanation is that the communist government is merely making up GDP numbers that make the government look good even while the country's economy is crashing.

Fabricated statistics in China is nothing new. It is one of the hallmarks of a failing political and economic system - in this case, the curious hybrid of communist totalitarianism with a capitalistic flair. Somewhat more reliable statistics can be found in OECD countries, but a fair amount of massaging goes on there as well.

In the USA, electric generation is down (as of February) 7.3% year over year, according to the Energy Information Administration. As it was not a mild winter, the drop can be logically associated with decreased need in industry.

We will be attempting to post further honest measures of the economic situation in the future. However, with the problem of faulty - or even make-believe - statistics, not to mention constant misinterpretation, the quest for quality information is difficult at best.