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Showing posts from August, 2014

Lies, Damn Lies and Statistics

Benjamin Disraeli, the 19th century British Prime Minister said in the parliament, that there are three types of lies: Lies, damn lies and statistics. The word statistics itself has statist (politica) roots. It was first popularized by the German political scientist  Gottfried Aschenwall. "The word statistic indirectly comes from the medieval Latin word status, for a political state although there is also a closely related word in German (statistik) which is also used in a political sense. “Statistik” was popularized by German political scientist Gottfried Aschenwall (1719-1772) in his “Vorbereitung zur Staatswissenschaft” (1748). According to Leiden University, it’s difficult to know exactly when the word ceased to have a meaning close to a “political state” and became more of a mathematical term. The first time the word was used in the Oxford English Dictionary is in 1770, in W. Hooper’s translation of Bielfield’s Elementary Universal Education: “The science, that is cal

Modi's First Budget, Failed WTO Deal and BRICS World Bank

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Narendra Modi government presented its first budget recently as well as, as per the news reports , Modi personally advised the Indian commerce minister to block the recent WTO deal on trade facilitation ( the Bali Package ). Modi did this allegedly to help the poor people of India and to further the national interest. Also recently the BRICS nations decided to create their own World Bank . In my latest economic report I analyze all three events.