I suspect that when the trade deficit becomes ~6% of GDP (as it is about in the United States) and increasingly our economy components have global or other national economies mixed in, we're getting a distorted picture.

Here's another one:

To summarize, it looks like the official statistics have been miscounting the impact of offshoring. Unless I’m crazy, cost gains and productivity improvements in the global supply chain are being credited to the U.S. economy—in effect, creating “phantom GDP.” In reality, both domestic GDP and domestic productivity have been growing slower than the official statistics show, and manufacturing is in much worse shape

.

So, what we have I think is domestic economic indicators in a globalized world.

I've been reading these other posts and there is a sta, PPP or purchasing power parity.

I found this paper (pdf) interesting in that it states the world bank is arbitrarily calculating Purchasing power to create a poverty line of fiction.

At least in the United States I can believe it. They have the poverty line so low for one person, there is no way that person can afford even a room to rent.

Here(pdf), is the world bank GDP by PPP indicators from 2008. Check this out!

by PPP the nation ranking (top 5) is:

1. USA
2. China
3. Japan
4. India
5. Germany

So the next time some a**nut screams about how China and India need our jobs because of all the evil doings in history, present them with this one!