Maybe '4' isn't so bad . . .

[Randy W]

.

A New Numerology for Predicting China’s Economy

“What are the boom years in the Chinese economy?” asked Cai Hongbin at a Thursday morning press conference. “Eighty-three and ’84, ’93 and ’94, 2003 and 2004.”

 

This is more than a bizarre coincidence, he believes. China’s political transitions normally take place in the third year of each decade. Apart from the top apparatchiks in the Communist Party’s powerful Politburo, a whole caste of lesser officials and directors of state-owned enterprises find themselves in new jobs at the same time.

 

Knowing they will likely be in the job for a decade exactly, officials get to work with big new investment projects at once, Professor Cai reckons, spurring a blowout in GDP growth. They can then sit back and watch their labors come to fruition just as the end of their term approaches.

 

. . .

 

The bad news is China’s economy has repeatedly got into trouble in years that end eight and nine: 1978-79, 1998-99 and 2008-2009.

 

Eight, which sounds a little bit like “getting rich,” is China’s luckiest number. It looks like the numerologists got that wrong too.