By Alex Plough October 24, 2014
(black truffles. ©Anne Petersen)
Statistical Noise
Each month the US government releases an update on the domestic labor market, providing much anticipated fodder for politicians, stock market traders and, of course, financial journalists.
October’s job report seemed like good news. Hiring increased by almost 250,000 new jobs and the unemployment rate fell two-tenths of a point to 5.9 percent, a six-year low.
But just how precise can these estimates really be? The New York Time’s Upshot column claims that “we obsess far too much” about monthly employment figures.
NYT journalists Neil Irwin and Kevin Quealy break down the methods used to measure unemployment and reveal just how much statistical noise is baked into the data.
Driverless Cars Overhyped
The media hype surrounding Amazon’s drone delivery service and Google’s driverless cars suggest that journalists tend to be a bit too credulous about claims made by the technology industry.
While it is fun to write about “the next big thing” that will change everything, too little time is spent talking to independent experts about the feasibility of promised technological breakthroughs.
One of the more interesting reads this week comes from San Francisco based writer Lee Gomes, whose article for Slate outlines why the autonomous Google car may never actually become a reality.
As it turns out, the prospect of a fully self-driving car arriving anytime soon is “pure science fiction” according to Raj Rajkumar, director of autonomous driving research at Carnegie-Mellon University.
Tesco’s Funky Accounting
The chairman of UK retail giant Tesco resigned on Thursday after an internal investigation revealed that profits for the first half of 2014 had been overstated by £263 million ($422.1 million).
Chairman Richard Broadbent stepped down as the retailer said that the accounting practices that led to the overstatement had also occurred in prior periods.
The future of eight Tesco executives, who were suspended after the news broke last month, now rests on the results of a separate investigation by the U.K. Financial Conduct Authority.
There was no evidence of fraud, acccording to chief executive Dave Lewis, but the restatement reveals just how malleable accounting standards are in the corporate world.
In a statement released Monday, the company blamed its unreliable revenue numbers on “the accelerated recognition of commercial income and delayed accrual of costs.” (The news could be taken as evidence that business journalism students should pay attention during accounting classes after all!)
Alternative Investments
Gold has always been a safe haven from choppy markets, but its value has plummeted as equity share prices have steadily climbed since 2012.
Thankfully precious metals aren’t the only long-term store of value. Have you considered Italian truffles? According to Bloomberg, this year prices have dropped 37 percent after heavy showers in the summer spawned a record batch of fungi. For other unorthodox investment strategies, Business Insider has compiled a list that includes autographs and vintage cars.
Seeing Art by Numbers
Finally, if you ever had any questions about the $66 billion art market but were too afraid to ask, this pioneering data visualization from French website Quoi? lets you scroll through history’s most bankable artists.
