‘The Data on Extreme Human Ageing Is Rotten from the Inside Out’ – Ig Nobel Winner Saul Justin Newman
Some myths bite the dust, here related to the number who live to be over 100. Not surprisingly, the cause is crappy data.
Read more...Category Archives: Dubious statistics
Official US Poverty Rate Declined in 2023, but More People Faced Economic Hardship
The arguably better official measure of US poverty says the poor are getting poorer.
Read more...No Solid Scientific Basis for Degrowth
Two economists depict degrowth studies as analytically weak and advocating political infeasible ideas.
Read more...Wall Street Journal Tries to Analyze Not-Great Data on US Immigration, Generating Reader Pushback
An attempt by the Wall Street Journal to mine data on immigration falls short by not providing strong enough caveats.
Read more...The Rat Race for Research Funding Delays Scientific Progress
How bad incentives and funders’ love of glitz lead to poor scientific research outcomes and demotivated academics.
Read more...The Problem with Pronatalism: Pushing Baby Booms to Boost Economic Growth Amounts to a Ponzi Scheme
Schemes to boost birth rates to bolster growth are generally ineffective and more important, miss the real problem.
Read more...The Irrationality of Markets
More evidence that the current level of advanced economy secondary market trading is bad for economic health.
Read more...Despite the Recession-Emergency-Rate-Cut Buffoonery, the Services Sector Expands Strongly on Growth in New Orders & Employment. Inflation Pressures Still On
Services are two-thirds of the economy; as long as they’re firm, the economy will plug along just fine, even as manufacturing stalled
Read more...Ninety Pre-Election Days in Two Charts
Election statistical models performed poorly in the US this year. That’s to be expected when faced with tail risk events.
Read more...“Censorship to Defend Democracy”
ZOMG, VoxEU starts with the premise that censorship is of course warranted, but finds current implementations have not worked well.
Read more...Looking for Long Covid: A Clash of Definition and Study Design
Influential studies from the VA St. Louis take a broad view of long Covid. Not every expert agrees with the approach.
Read more...Israel Economy Bleeding Out as Damage Compounds
Israel ‘s economy is buckling due to its campaign against Palestinians. But despite what may be irreparable damage, it is not turning back.
Read more...Pitchbook Report Attempting to Defend Private Equity Role in Healthcare Suffers from Fundamental, Fatal Analytical Flaw
A recent report from Pitchbook commits data crimes in attempting to depict private equity management of healthcare companies as benign.
Read more...‘Woah!’: FTC Applauded for Launching Inquiry Into Surveillance Pricing
The FTC targets surveillance pricing, which is privacy-risking data harvesting used to charge higher prices.
Read more...US Voters Want Change, Biden’s Exit Hasn’t Fixed That
Communities ravaged by neoliberal capitalism want real change. Candidates like Biden make Trump look more able to deliver it.
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