May Contain Nuts

Comparative statistics reporting (i.e. “worst x since y”) does something weird to my brain. Even if the x we’re experiencing is a really bad thing, and it’s bad enough to be worse than y, for some reason my brain wants to get the better of y and out-do it.

For example, most economists think that the unemployment rate in the US may reach 10%, which would make this the worst recession since the 1980s. A particular economist by the name of Nouriel Roubini, however, expects unemployment to top 12%, making this the worst recession since the 1930s. For some strange, bizarre reason, I find my brain rooting for us to hit the latter figure, despite how incredibly bad I realize it would be for people and the economy.

I think my brain may be broken.

This entry was posted on Friday, May 8th, 2009 at 9:29 am and is filed under Alahmnetcetera. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.