Spinning Statistics
For those who don’t believe that one can spin a statistic to show pretty much whatever one wants, here is a hard example from a blog I was just reading (follow the link “Sales Spin” to get to the original):
- 1:51 p.m. ET: Disappointing Sales During Holiday Season
- American consumers, uneasy about the economy and unimpressed by the merchandise in stores, delivered the bleak holiday shopping season retailers had expected, if not feared, according to one early but influential projection.
Spending between Thanksgiving and Christmas rose just 3.6 percent over last year, the weakest performance in at least four years, according to MasterCard Advisors, a division of the credit card company. By comparison, sales grew 6.6 percent in 2006, and 8 percent in 2005.
“There was not a recipe for a pick up in sales growth,” said Michael McNamara, vice president of research and analysis at MasterCard Advisors, citing higher gas prices, a slowing housing market and a tight credit market.- 3:01 p.m. ET: U.S. Retailers’ Holiday Sales Up
- U.S. retailers’ sales rose 3.6 percent in holiday shopping, at the lower end of expectations, helped by a late-season spending surge on some items, according to data released on Tuesday by SpendingPulse.
The figures, from the retail data service of MasterCard Advisors, offer a glimpse at the strength of the 2007 holiday shopping season, which was expected to grow at the slowest rate in five years, as U.S. consumers face a housing slump, a credit crunch and higher prices for food and fuel.
“It’s more at the lower end of the expected range but more or less in line with the reduced expectations coming into the holiday season,” said Michael McNamara, vice president of Research and Analysis for MasterCard Advisors.
Same statistics, same experts, and totally opposite spin.
Extrapolate that to things like political stats, and things get ugly fast.
