Comments for Math Is Hard: David Ignatius Edition at http://www.cepr.net , comment 1 to 9 out of 9 comments http://www.cepr.net Wed, 19 Jun 2013 11:24:09 +0100 FeedCreator 1.7.3 http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/beat-the-press/math-is-hard-david-ignatius-edition#comment-16794 Based on the two errors described, maybe WAPO editorial writers and David Ignatius should just ask their copy editors to divide descriptors like "tripled" or "quadrupled" by five. That would get them in the ballpark. - Mitchell Harwitz Mon, 11 Jun 2012 15:58:08 +0100 http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/beat-the-press/math-is-hard-david-ignatius-edition#comment-16760 @ezra , There are mistakes and then there are mistakes. Everyone mispells things , gets confused etc . But that's such a howler it suggests a real degree of ignorance. - Ciaran Sat, 09 Jun 2012 11:29:38 +0100 http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/beat-the-press/math-is-hard-david-ignatius-edition#comment-16759 Ezra, Dr. Baker has a Ph.D. So do I. I hope that counts as having 'some college'? Mistakes are inevitable, sure. But the worst mistake it's to allow a mistake to remain unnoticed and, thereby be repeated. Glaring errors like this should be ridiculed, as otherwise they are repeated. This is not a round off error, it's a 500% error. 500%. Why look at 1000 articles? Anybody who truly understands statistics, a sample of 25 to 50 would be plenty. But, to me, the size of Ignatius' error indicates ignorance, not just an arithmetic error. - David Sat, 09 Jun 2012 09:19:44 +0100 http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/beat-the-press/math-is-hard-david-ignatius-edition#comment-16757 He writes pretty decent thrillers and has an in at the CIA. He shouldn't try to master too many disciplines. - Bart Sat, 09 Jun 2012 03:34:11 +0100 http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/beat-the-press/math-is-hard-david-ignatius-edition#comment-16756 two math errors in 5 years ? you try putting out a paper every single day, it ain't as easy as it looks if all they have are two math erros, thats probably batting like 0.99999 instead of aquick, snarky local blog post, how about someone get some a college class to go thru the paper and look at , say, 1000 numbers - ezra abrams Sat, 09 Jun 2012 02:33:49 +0100 http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/beat-the-press/math-is-hard-david-ignatius-edition#comment-16755 It's worse. Errors like this show that, not only can Ignatius and the Washington Post not add, but that they have no feel for numbers at all. To anyone who does, that error sticks out like a sore thumb. You never see grammatical errors so gross. - kea Sat, 09 Jun 2012 00:25:09 +0100 http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/beat-the-press/math-is-hard-david-ignatius-edition#comment-16754 I'm not sure what your point is. Ignatius changed what Erdogan apparently said and/or didn't fact check. But, just looking at the dual assertions by Ignatius/Erdogan, you have to fact check that stuff. The exchange rate with the dollar is irrelevant, btw: the Turkish lira was revalued in 2004, but taking that into account now has a slightly weaker exchange rate, vis a vis the U.S. dollar, than it did in 2001. - fairleft Sat, 09 Jun 2012 00:10:40 +0100 http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/beat-the-press/math-is-hard-david-ignatius-edition#comment-16753 The Davos of the Middle East, however, is above all another chance for Turkey to showcase itself and promote itself as the model for a changing Arab world, in which Islamists are the rising power. In the opening session Mr Erdogan listed the achievements of his socially conservative government over the past decade, including average yearly growth of 5.3 per cent, the tripling of per capita income in dollar terms, and foreign direct investment which reached $16bn in 2011. [Here is the Financial Times quote.] - ltr Fri, 08 Jun 2012 13:08:43 +0100 http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/beat-the-press/math-is-hard-david-ignatius-edition#comment-16752 Maybe Ignatius mistyped: " ... gross domestic product has more than [i]trifled[/i]." Don't they cover compound interest, doubling times etc. in business math? - David Fri, 08 Jun 2012 12:24:13 +0100