numbers vs. trends

The GDP of China is a much-debated figure. It fuels rumors of both being inflated and deflated for different political reasons. Regional GDPs are often much inflated because each province is economically autonomous but depends on the central government for policy changes and other benefits. Regions therefore compete for higher GDPs. China as a whole however, is struggling to quiet the rumors of an explosive economy; it takes the provincial numbers into consideration but then lower it before publishing. Given such dramatic alterations, it is hard to know just what the GDP is. Financial firms in New York, however, know exactly how to take this number into account. Through a system measuring the relative value rather than the actual quantitative value, Meryl Lynch is able to rely on the published GDP for business decisions despite its lack of grounds.
Grounding statistics in relationships rather than hard numbers is a powerful way to view things in the context of time rather than place. Although it is a common practice in analyzing data already, its visual counterpart has yet to be explored fully.