In a world that is both swimming in big data and becoming more dependent upon it, sometimes you come across data that isn't all it's cracked up to be. Data that doesn't tell you what you think it does. Data that isn't particularly useful, but for whatever reason, continues to be compiled and reported. Month by month. Year after year.
We started wondering about this problem after running into the opposite problem. There is data that is useful, that can give you a much better understanding of how the world really works or how history really happened, but for whatever reason, portions of which have become either unavailable or even potentially lost over time. We may never find that missing information and that is a loss.
While we might call it big data, it isn't, by any means, all data. Nor could it be, because there are constraints on how much data we can store. Nor should it be, because not all data is useful.
If you were in charge of building a global database project that would store and provide useful information instantly on demand, how would you ensure it contains useful information while avoiding populating it with data that's less than useful?
One place to begin might be to identify the data objective analysts find doesn't help them make better sense of the world that is. Back in 2010, Time's Justin Fox asked a number of analysts what their "least favorite economic indicator" was. Here's the list he compiled of what he termed the "most overrated economic indicators":
- FHFA house price index
- Weekly chain store sales
- Challenger layoff announcements
- Producer price index
- Index of leading economic indicators
- Consumer confidence index
- ADP employment index
- Gross domestic product
- Consumer price index
In 2023, we can confirm all these metrics have survived to the present. They are all still regularly compiled and reported. Is that because these examples are really more useful than they were made out to be in 2010? Or are these zombie datasets that somehow keep plodding along because of the inertia they've built up over time?
The potential answers to those questions are intriguing enough we thought it might make for an interesting series to explore these indicators. And since there are only nine indicators and the law of internet lists require ten items, we're open to suggestions for a tenth item to include in the list of less than useful economic indicators.
Image credit: Big Data by LearnTek via Flickr. Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0).
Labels: ideas
Welcome to the blogosphere's toolchest! Here, unlike other blogs dedicated to analyzing current events, we create easy-to-use, simple tools to do the math related to them so you can get in on the action too! If you would like to learn more about these tools, or if you would like to contribute ideas to develop for this blog, please e-mail us at:
ironman at politicalcalculations
Thanks in advance!
Closing values for previous trading day.
This site is primarily powered by:
CSS Validation
RSS Site Feed
JavaScript
The tools on this site are built using JavaScript. If you would like to learn more, one of the best free resources on the web is available at W3Schools.com.
Other Cool Resources
Blog Roll
