Freakonomics Author on Lying Statistics

Steven D. Levitt, co-author of the best selling book, Freakonomics, pulled some doozy statistical magic tricks to reach some of the conclusions in his book.

Turns out, though, he doesn’t trust statistics either, when it comes to his health:

I never trust statistics I get from people in the field of medicine, ever.

We anxiously await Dr. Levitt’s paper explaining why statistics don’t work in medicine, but work in economics, given that there are a lot more variables to contend with in economics, much more difficulty in measuring and observing in economics and, the piece de resistance, there are no constants in economics–--making a lot of economic equations look rather silly. (Levitt’s included).