In China, analysts skeptical of official GDP growth figures have started checking them against other indicators, such as cargo traffic and electricity consumption. That check can be pretty reliable, except that in 2015 reports emerged that government authorities were instructing developers to keep the lights on even in empty apartment complexes. The aim was to drive up electricity consumption data so that it would confirm official economic growth claims. This is a classic case of Goodhart’s Law, which says that once a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be useful, partly because so many
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