‘Now, what I want is stats! Stats alone are wanted in life!’
If Dickens’ hard-nosed utilitarian, Thomas Gradgrind, was around today he’d probably be knee-deep in SAGE briefings and ONS data bulletins, trying to work out what the heck is going on with this virus.
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In the absence of a fictional Victorian schoolmaster, who better to lead us through the numerical mire than Tim Harford – the economist, author, broadcaster and TED-talker – whose new book ‘How To Make The World Add Up’ is an invaluable guide to seeing through the statistical fog.
It’s much more than just a handy Spark Notes for numeracy though, as Tim delves into the deeply held psychological biases that lead us down the wrong path.
This was a great discussion about a book packed with insights and wonderful nuggets, such as: what do the inner workings of a toilet tell us about political polarisation?
If you think this summer has been sticky, count yourself lucky you were not in the Cabinet in August and September 1931, in the midst of possibly the worst economic crisis the country has ever faced. It is worth looking at what happened then, because high energy and Government borrowing costs mean a crisis of […]
This week saw a south-Atlantic gale of outrage after Argentina’s chainsaw-wielding President Javier Milei repeated his country’s entirely bogus claim to the Falkland Islands, with President Donald Trump twisting the knife by saying the USA’s view of the issue was ‘under review’. It came just weeks after Argentina’s footballers brandished a ‘Malvinas’ banner at the […]
There is a standard response from any Chancellor or Prime Minister asked questions about government finances: ‘I am not going to write the Budget in front of you’. And neither should they. The Budget is a potentially market-moving financial event. The figures it contains have to add up, make sense. The measures have to be […]
