Debunking the Myth of Private Equity’s Superior Returns
Why private equity returns are nowhere near as juicy as most investors in private equity believe.
Read more...Category Archives: Dubious statistics
R. Hunter Biden Should Declare Who Really Owns His New Ukrainian Employer, Burisma Holdings
Trying to pierce the murk around the new Ukrainian venture of Vice President Biden’s son R. Hunter Biden
Read more...Richard Alford: Not Only Are Economists in Policy Roles Bad at Forecasting, They Also Do a Poor Job of Allowing for Error
Understanding the odds and possible impact of forecasting error should be a important element of policy design. But it isn’t!
Read more...The Dow Jones Industrial Average is a Hoax
Yves here. On the occasion of an all-time high, a hard look at how the Dow Jones Industrial Average is constituted is in order.
Read more...The BLS Jobs Report Covering April 2014: A Tale of Two Contradictory Reports And Deeply Mixed Messages
By Hugh, who is a long-time commenter at Naked Capitalism. Originally published at Corrente. A complete archive of Hugh’s reports can be found here The Jobs Report in Brief This is a very schizophrenic jobs report. In the seasonally adjusted “official” data, the unemployment rate dropped an amazing four-tenths of a percent to 6.3% but […]
Read more...Did Canada’s Middle Class Just Get More Affluent Than the US’s, or Did that Happen Long Ago?
The media understates how much the prosperity of the US middle class has fallen on a relative basis.
Read more...The Jobs Report For March 2014: After A Long Winter, The Economy Plays Some Catchup
Mr. Market was not happy with today’s jobs report. While it was not that bad, the ADP report earlier in the week had led investors to hope for better details.
Read more...Joe Firestone: Progressives Re-Arrange the Deck Chairs for Obama’s Austerity Budget
With friends like the austerity-loving Congressional Progressive Caucus, who needs enemies?
Read more...Gaius Publius: Neoliberalism, “Just Desserts,” and the Post-Climate-Crisis Economy
Gaius examines the connections between neoliberalism and the convulsions that climate change will bring to the world.
Read more...The Jobs Report Covering February 2014: Seasonal Signs of Life But Nowhere Near Full Employment
Yves here. Due to a communication failure between Lambert and me, you are getting Hugh’s report on the monthly employment release late. Apologies!
Read more...Tax Havens Make US and Europe Look Poorer than They Are, Exaggerate Size of “Global Imbalances”
Peculiarly, despite the importance of tax havens, a pathbreaking paper published in 2013 by Gabriel Zucman of the Paris School of Economics, The Missing Wealth of Nations: Are Europe and the U.S. Net Debtors or Net Creditors? (hat tip Dikaios Logos) has received perilous little attention. Perhaps that’s because, among other things, it undercuts the Bernanke-flattering claim that “global imbalances” were a major driver of the financial crisis.
Read more...Yes, Virginia, Banking Contributes a Lot Less Value Than You are Led to Believe
One thing we’ve discussed repeatedly is that the activities of large banks, as presently constituted, are purely extractive. And to add insult to injury, GDP calculations exaggerate what in the way of value they arguably do add.
Read more...Jeff Madrick: Why the CBO Can’t Be Trusted
Yves here. I’ve written from time to time how openly partisan the Congressional Budget Office is, not in the traditional sense of favoring one party over the other, but as serving as an key enforcer of neoliberal ideology. For instance, its projections of government debt to GDP ratios were highly misleading by virtue of failing to net out financial assets. And after being called out for that error in paper, what did the CBO do? Make it even harder to find the data to prove the magnitude of their misdirection.
Read more...Determined Ignorance on Climate Change: Still Impervious to Facts
Climate change is a hard policy question to address because it pits those who believe in evidence against those committed to knowing as little as possible.
Read more...Businesses Going Into “All Surveillance All the Time” Mode in Pursuit of More Productivity
The Financial Times tell us gives us another sighting in the all-too-familiar general story of “the Brave New World is here, and then some.”
Read more...