Talk and visualization of third world statistics by Hans Rosling

A friend just pointed me to a great talk, titled "Debunking third-world myths with the best stats you've ever seen", by Hans Rosling, the founder of Gapminder.



I like their dynamic visualization of statistical data. In my opinion, adding the time dimension to the data definitely allows to extract a better understanding of the evolution of the systems under study, and this is an excellent example.

Inkling market on the GDP growth of China vs. Germany

One of the markets from all the interesting ones in inkling markets tries to predict whether China's GDP will grow beyond Germany's by 2008 (not adjusted for PPP). My first reaction based on a very generic feeling I got from reading general media was of slight surprise that it wasn't already bigger, given all the incredible economic metrics China keeps pushing out.

But taking a look at some historic data and doing some projections actually makes it seem quite difficult to happen, as Germany's economy is supposedly slowly picking up and rumors have it that China's economic growth will eventually cool down and flatten out. Even if all were to continue at its current rate, it does not seem all that likely that China's GDP would surpass Germany still for a few years.