Something I have been meaning to post for a while...today I found the clipping again.

A very long time ago I read something Robert Heinlein wrote about a trip round Moscow. (He visited in 1960. I'd be grateful if anyone could point me at the collection that includes the piece - I think I remember a thin NEL paperback I probably read in the early Seventies, but memory is unreliable.) I particularly remember that he estimated the population of the city by looking at the freight trains. He thought the city was smaller than the Russian Government claimed.

Late last year (I've lost the exact date) I took a clipping from the Evening Standard. Jim Armitage is one of its business journalists. He reports that the Chinese Prime Minister looks only at railways, electricity use and bank lending for his reports on his own economy because official figures are so unreliable. At the time, rail freight volumes had just fallen 10.5% relative to the previous year, which was not good news for the Chinese economy.

I am a semi-educated person trying to make decisions about my own life, never mind whole economies. Thank goodness that thanks to Heinlein I have never trusted official statistics.