Relevant and even prescient commentary on news, politics and the economy.

Data Integrity Requires Personal Integrity and Vetting

Anyone who has ever worked with data knows that making certain the information is “clean” is much more important than what you do with it. Brilliant analysis of inaccurate data may make heroes (Chamley, Prescott, etc.), but it doesn’t make sensible policy. Witness the release of “public” data from the state of Texas. Jeremy once […]

Larger, greater than expected…Declines

by Divorced one like Bush US Initial jobless claims decline larger than expected in May 31 week (6/5/08) Mortgage finance giant suffers much larger-than-expected loss due to reserves for credit losses and slashes its dividend to preserve capital. (8/8/08) Factory orders decline more than expected in August (10/2/08) Retail sales for September posted its steepest […]