Yves here. Time again for a speech I wind up giving much too often on the cognitive bias, halo effect, and how discussions of China’s economy are a case study. The halo effect is the propensity to see individuals or groups as all good or all bad. So China fans, who admittedly often face China critics with a dated or skewed view, are too eager to dismiss bona fide problems China faces, such as its still-unwinding monster real estate bubble.

For instance, we were often attacked for saying that China had an overinvestment/overcapacity problem that was bad for China as well as the global economy. Such a thing could not possibly happen, or if it did, it could not be bad!…