US National Debt Reaches $16.7 Trillion
170 Million Jobs Will be Lost Due to Sequester
ET–Elvis Love Child Raised by Bigfoot
We are constantly confronted with data. Some good, some bad, some out of this world.
How do we make sense of it? How do we meaningfully interpret data?
We recommend a four step process that goes by the acronym PGA-T.
Step 1: Practical analysis.
- Look at the data. Are there patterns, trends, anomalies?
- Ask critical questions. Where is the data from? What units are the data in? When was the data taken? What was expected? What is good? Has the measurement system been validated? What are the operational definitions of the values? Are the numbers big or small? Compared to what?
- Translate the numbers. Convert the data into units that are meaningful to you.
Step 2: Graphical analysis. Create a series of graphs to illustrate the relationships in the data.
Step 3: Analytic analysis. Run and interpret hypothesis tests. Perform time-series analysis of the data.
Step 4: Tell the story. Put all the pieces together and interpret the data.
Following these steps, the incomprehensible becomes comprehensible. $16.7 Trillion becomes $147,000 per federal taxpayer. 170 Million jobs lost is impossible because there are only 170 million jobs to lose currently in the US.
The ET-Elvis love child that was raised by Bigfoot? Well, that we just made up – but it is a good story.
