09.13.2011 07:06 AM

Stanford: “Change-book” is Deranged-book

  • “[Changebook showed] a consistent pattern of misleading visual presentation in those graphs, including a lack of quantitative proportion in graph objects, mis- labeling and/or arbitrary and/or inconsistent scaling in graph axes, inadequate or incorrect sourcing, and other fundamental flaws.”
  • “…not one of the 13 graphs conforms to the standards of presentation that are normally required of statistical presentations in academic and professional practice.”
  • “Whatever one thinks of the changebook’s policy proposals themselves (and those proposals, per se, are not the subject of this commentary), the consistently misleading and inaccurate statistical representations contained in the changebook are lamentable.”

15 Comments

  1. Marc L says:

    So our favourite Marxist is complaining about misleading presentations. Although I don’t doubt he’s right, the CAW and the CCPA are not exactly squeaky-clean on that front i.e distorting the facts to fit your agenda.! Pot calling kettle again!

    • Warren says:

      He says clearly he isn’t commenting on the substance. He is merely saying – and proving – that they are lying in their graphical presentations.

      • Marc L says:

        Agree, it’s not about substance, it’s about distorting the facts, which his kind are pretty good at too.

        • The Doctor says:

          I have to agree with Marc’s general thrust though: don’t go near Jim Stanford if you can avoid it.

        • Cam says:

          Good Day:

          How does calling someone a Marxist help move the discussion forward? I have not seen, read nor heard any credible economist provide a sound attack of Stanford. Of course I’m open to new evidence.

          • The Doctor says:

            Well, I didn’t call him a Marxist, so I can’t help you on that front. I form my personal negative impression of Stanford from the various (and voluminous) articles he writes in the popular press, such as the Globe & Mail. Based on that, I find him to be an utterly inflexible ideologue — every single piece he writes has the same thrust, i.e., that more government spending and more taxes are the solution to every single problem that faces us; that labour unions are 100% good; are always in the right and never in the wrong; that government always does things better than the private sector; that corporations are inherently evil; and so on.

            In short, he’s the exact converse of a far-right ideologue, equally inflexible, equally obtuse and therefore equally useless.

    • Danforthist says:

      Haha … so Warren is a Marxist now? Didn’t he support the budgetslashingest government in Canada’s modern history? What do you make of McGuinty then.

  2. CQ says:

    Every stock market pricing graph in the free world I’ve ever seen has refused to use a standard proportion. Every mere flutter is a top-bottom-top-bottom tsunami.

  3. Go Jets Go says:

    The charts are misleading, but don’t throw too many stones. Look at the one you posted yesterday with SOMETIMES, GRAPHS ARE WORTH A FEW WORDS, TOO.

    • Attack! says:

      Jeez, speaking of glass houses: with their new superimposed lo-go- go, the Jets can’t seem to decide if they’re just the CPC’s F-35-shilling company team or the ‘Leafs (i.e., losers, either way).

      • Go Jets Go says:

        It’s great to be back at the NHL table. Getting slagged online is just another welcome confirmation that this is really happening.

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