Category Archives: Dubious statistics

The Inverted Yield Curve

Should we trust the recession warning the yield curve is sending?

Economic Growth: A Short History of a Controversial Idea

Environmentalists and even some economists question the relentless pursuit of GDP growth. But where did the idea come from?

Forget Lower Jobs Growth, The Number of People Who’ve Stopped Looking for Work Is Much More Worrisome

Why the jobs market isn’t as strong as the headline unemployment figures would have you believe.

Eight Reasons Why Inequality Ruins the Economy

Econimists have noticed, awfully late in the game, that high levels of inequality are correlated with lower growth. There are reasons to think this relationship is causal.

$1 Trillion: The Cost Of Climate Change For Corporations

Another effort to cost out some of the effects of climate change.

The Economic Cost of Devastating Hurricanes and Other Extreme Weather Events Is Even Worse Than We Thought

irming up the math on the economic cost of climate change makes a bad picture look worse.

Wolf Richter: Subprime Bites – Auto-Loan Delinquencies Spike to Q3 2009 Level, Despite Strongest Labor Market in Years

A high level of auto-loan delinquencies challlenges the cheery spin the Fed and the financial press is putting on the state of the ecoomy.

Why We Need New Measures of Potential Output—and What They Tell Us

Economists and policy makers are waking up to the fact that estimates of what is possible in the economy – “potential output” – are way off: this paper explains why.

Ilargi: Renewables Are Dead

How Germany’s failure to meet renewable energy targets demonstrates that renewables won’t be able to meet current and expected production needs.

Buttigieg’s Small Donor Surge: Less There Than Meets the Eye?

A first look at the data about Buttigieg’s donors raises some uncomfortable questions.

What the April 15 Emerson Democratic Primary Poll Says About Emerson and Sanders

It’s 2016 all over again, as the press and analysts go to unusual lengths to ignore Sanders’ gains.

Private Equity Investors’ Pockets Picked Even More With Increases in Carry Fees

More evidence that private equity is an exercise in separating fools from their money.

Why China’s Current Account Balance Approaches Zero

China’s once-hefty current account surpluses are falling away. What are the implications?

Hubert Horan: Can Uber Ever Deliver? Part Nineteen: Uber’s IPO Prospectus Overstates Its 2018 Profit Improvement by $5 Billion

Uber’s financial data in its S-1 filing is misleading and even inconsistent.