[lurk2]

I ran into this problem yesterday trying to calculate changes in federal spending over time. One user claimed that inflation-adjusted spending had sharply declined between 2000 and 2010 - which was true. But I had already calculated that spending had sharply increased from 1990 to 2023. I couldn't understand how we had reached such different conclusions until I looked at the IRS data book and saw that there was a slump in 2010 (presumably due to the effects of the Great Recession) and a huge spike starting in 2020.

"Lies, damn lies, and statistics."