When reading the news, keep in mind that just because two things change together, doesn’t mean there’s any direct causal link.
Posts Tagged ‘statistics’
The Math of Conspiracies and Doomsdays
22
May
Yesterday was my grandfather’s 105th birthday party. He actually turns 105 tomorrow, on the 23rd of May. Yesterday was also supposed to be the end of the world, according to a very small splinter group of Christians. Clearly, the guy who made that prediction was thoroughly convinced, and thoroughly wrong.
Why do people make predictions like that? Let’s see what the math says! But first, more about my grandfather’s birthday party…
The Math Of Housing Prices
18
May
What do median house prices tell me? Picture © Justin Smith / Wikimedia Commons, CC-By-SA-3.0
In terms of house prices, the city where I live avoided the worst of the Global Financial Crisis. There was a spurt in house prices that stopped in 2007, but after that, prices didn’t crash, they plateaued. Now, I rent a house, and I also own a house which I rent to someone else. One day, I’d like to sell the house I own, and buy one to live in. Naturally, I pay attention to newspaper headlines like “House Prices Plummet In May!”
