Thursday, October 29, 2009

Data and Logic


Steve Levitt explains economics:

Our question, at noted above, is what is the cheapest, fastest way to quickly cool the Earth. Like every question we tackle in Freakonomics and SuperFreakonomics, we approach the question like economists, using data and logic to conclude that the answer to that question is geo-engineering....
And ocean acidification:
"Of course, ocean acidification is an important issue. Now, there are ways to deal with ocean acidification, right, it's actually, that's actually, we know exactly how to un-acidifiy the oceans, is to pour a bunch of base into it, so, so if that turns out to be an incredibly big problem, then we can deal with that."
(Photo by Rakka.)


5 comments:

bruce said...

Doncha just love it?
The best and the brightest!
Is this a great country, or what?

Spiny Norman said...

"…we approach the question like economists…."

Like economists – not as economists. So happy they cleared that up.

Jazzbumpa said...

Off-hand, I'd say engaging non-economic problems as if they were economic problems, which is what they are doing, though they express the point a bit differently, is running a huge risk of jumping the track,

Many modern economists, especially from the Chicago School, can't even get economics right - they've either forgotten about Keynes, or don't even know about him.

And the practitioners have such a great record of anticipating economic crises, and knowing what to do to solve them.

Methinks these guys have gotten a little too freaky.

elbrucce said...

see also

Phila said...

see also

"The issue is not whether he and his co-author are blasphemous, but whether they are competent."

Made my day...thanks!