I know it’s almost impossible to have fun with stats (I’ve sat through many a boring stats course over the years), but a recent event reminded me of how misleading some statistics and analyses are – most notably anything involving time series and percentages. There’s a small library of books on how to lie with… Continue reading Fun With Stats
Category: Finance
Banking With A Difference
In an era where every day seems to bring a new article about banks doing silly things (liar loans are my current favourite), it’s refreshing to learn about a bank that’s actually doing something great. Unfortunately for those of us in North America, this bank is in India. Technology Review has an article in this… Continue reading Banking With A Difference
New Names on the Doors
With all the news recently about the global financial crisis, some of you may be wondering, what happens when a bank fails? I mean, not all of us are lucky enough to be in towns with failing banks so that we can witness it with our own eyes. Fortunately, I live in New York and… Continue reading New Names on the Doors
A Failure of Metaphor
Unless you live under a rock you’ve probably heard that Congress voted down Hank Paulson’s bailout plan and then the Dow lost 777 points. The fundamental question is: why was it voted down? There’s a lot of speculation that it’s due to the deal being unfair, it being too kind to Wall Street, etc., but… Continue reading A Failure of Metaphor
Sinking The Costs
I always get a kick out of stock analysts. It’s a weird job: you’re paid a lot of money to talk about an industry you’ve never worked in and model the future profits of companies you have no inside knowledge of. And on top of it all you have a profound impact on the companies’… Continue reading Sinking The Costs