Wednesday, February 18, 2009

I never wanted to see Paul Krugman in a bikini

1-2 Knockout catches him engaging in some Bikini Statistics. Here is the link to Sixteen Years of Intellectual Dishonesty:

To wit, his chart:

  • truncated the data stream as to eliminate any context of historical levels, volatility, highs, lows, etc.--without context data are meaningless;
  • used an abridged timeseries when the full series tells the opposite story (democrats have a negative average growth in employment, republicans have a positive);
  • doesn't adjust for economic policy lag;
  • implies that the president alone (or in majority) controls the factors of production, employment, and output without exogenistic factors.
Previous BS post here.
Statistics are like a bikini. What they present is suggestive, but what they conceal is vital--Aaron Levenstein

Apologies, regular readers. A photo would be too disturbing.

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