The linked post also uses a cultural explanation for the high Chinese savings rate, when James Fallows demonstrates in this Atlantic article: http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2008/01/the-14-t... that the state engineers an artificially high savings rate in order to keep its currency relatively weak. The mechanism is too strong to describe here, but China in essence forces manufacturers and other exporters to save instead of spend.

A mistake of this magnitude doesn't automatically discount the rest of the original post, but it does make me suspicious.