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The majority of the economic and demographic data used in the making of the forecasts is widely available by institutions such as the CIA, IMF, UN, USG, etc. You can see the most relevant data at every single country's page. There is a tiny part of data coming from a variety of shadow sources such as Internet gurus, unsigned reports and others. But all these sources are from the internet and are of public domain for at least a minority. For example, several years ago Dagong, the Chinese ratings agency, published a report analyzing the physical economy of the States comparing it with those of China, Germany and Japan. The conclusion was that the US GDP was something between $5 to $10 trillion instead of $15 trillion as officially reported by the USG. We assume that the official data, especially economic, released by governments is fake, cooked or distorted in some degree. Historically it is well known that the former Soviet Union was making up fake statistics years before its collapse. Western as well as other countries are making up their numbers today to conceal their real state of affairs. We are sure that many people out there can find government statistics in their own countries that by their own personal experience are hard to believe or are so optimistic that may belong to a different country...
originally posted by: Freeborn
a reply to: ufoorbhunter
I'm glad I don't live in the same country as you....oh, hang on a minute.
Yet another reason why London, the South East and The Home Counties should be walled off and separated from the rest of us.
You can just keep on doing what you're doing and we'll just struggle on....quite happily with our wonderful green fields and happy smiley faces.
originally posted by: Freeborn
a reply to: ufoorbhunter
Yet you are a passionate supporter of the EU and its policy of free movement and unfettered immigration?