Chinese growth officially slowed to a 6.9% pace in the third quarter. Unofficially is another matter. Power output has been virtually flat in China this year and commodity imports are down sharply, signaling a more serious slump in the industrial sector. But consumer spending and services continue to rise.
Fortune’s Scott Cendrowski cites one estimate that puts the actual growth rate at 4.5%. The Economist parses the numbers and comes up with a growth rate of 5%. Either way, China’s growth is significantly slower than the official rate, but not in a hard landing.
Meanwhile, unicorn hunting season continues, with biotech firm Theranos still taking the most buckshot. Jean-Louis Gassee, a former Apple executive and now a popular tech blogger, writes of his personal experience using Theranos’ blood testing technology and comparing it to standard blood tests. The results raise serious concerns about accuracy
Elizabeth Holmes, who founded Theranos and can claim roughly half of its supposed $9 billion valuation, is scheduled to speak Wednesday at a technology conference in Laguna Beach, California, put on by the Wall Street Journal, which eviscerated the company in an investigative piece last week. Watch that space. And don’t expect this to be the last billion-dollar-startup to come under fire.
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