Alan M Jackson

This is actually quite funny. The American Enterprise Institute (AEI) probably the most warmongering Think Tank in the US, unintentionally screwed themselves with this because if their adjustments for China's defense spending are correct, then it necessarily means that similar adjustments should be made to China's GDP overall... and when you calculate, it means China's GDP is actually $54 trillion, more than twice that of the US! Which means you have the AEI hilariously admitting the US has completely and irremediably lost the race for supremacy: you can't bridge such a gap where you economy is less than half that of your competitor... How? Because to arrive to their number they essentially say "we first need to adjust China's nominal defense spending to PPP and then on top of that we need to look at the salary differential between the Chinese and the Americansa and further adjust by that ratio". Which is senseless because the salary differential is accounted for in the PPP adjustment in the first place but, hey, if that's what they say 🤷‍♂️ These types of adjustments apply to China's GDP overall: China overall has a large salary differential with the US. And therefore, the same multiplier that they apply to defense spending should be applied to GDP which gives you $54 trillion. So let's thank the AEI for telling the world that we're now in a global order where China is incomparably wealthier and more powerful than America 😊 All kidding aside they are correct that China's defense spending and GDP need to be adjusted for PPP in order to compare it with the US. Which means that China's defense spending is higher than the nominal value and actually stands at about $352bn, about half that of the US. It also means that China's GDP today stands at $35 trillion, or about 25% higher than the US. Which is very telling: their actual GDP is 25% than that of the US with half the defense spending. Maybe this explains that...

Solidarity with the students at UT Austin and across the country. Free Palestine.