Bloomberg

January 23, 2013
By Lawrence Goodman

Economists dub the challenge of creating analysis with faulty data “GIGO,” or “garbage in, garbage out.” Fudged statistics may seem relatively innocuous within the context of problems confronting the global economy. However, faulty data can thrust millions into poverty and prevent others from reaching the middle class.

John Maynard Keynes argued vehemently that the International Monetary Fund should play a central role in ensuring quality statistics for the management of the world economy. “There is hardly any greater service the Fund can do than provide up-to-date barometers of the monetary problems of the world,” Keynes said at the Bretton Woods Conference in 1944.

To view the full text of this article, visit Argentina’s Fudged Data Threaten Middle Class