loosecannon
Senior Member
- May 7, 2007
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anybody got a link to this alleged sampling?
Hmmm it's been a few years since I studied the NIPAs (National Income and Products Accounts) that make up the GDP. BEA doesn't collect any data themselves, they get their info from other agencies. Most of the info on private consumption comes from BLS and Census. Government spending and receipts are admin data for Fed gov, not sure about the info for state and local. Import and Export are measured by Commerce department.
Accusations of "cooking the books" are just claims from people who either don't understand or disagree with the definitions and/or methodology. Of course definitions and methodologies are debatable and are debated all the time and changed once someone's argument becomes convincing, but only people who have no idea what they're talking about think there's only one possible correct definition/method for anything.
Thanks. Any info at all on the way sampling is or isn't reliable and straightforward?
China gets accused continually of underestimating GDP, but it seems like a really simple stat to establish provided that you have the actual means to develop a data set. Maybe that's the challenge, perfect data sets are impossible.