[jacques_chester]

Even if you use rigorous statistical techniques -- and economists do under the heading of econometrics, even inventing new techniques -- it's still really hard to draw meaningful conclusions.

There are just so many variables. And the more interconnected the world becomes, the more variables there are. Pointing to any one correlation and you'll find a hundred statistical fingers pointing at correlations with totally different consequences.

[dragonwriter]

> Even if you use rigorous statistical techniques -- and economists do under the heading of econometrics, even inventing new techniques -- it's still really hard to draw meaningful conclusions.

> There are just so many variables.

Right. That's the problem with too few data points given the number of independent variables that need to be controlled for. I addressed that explicitly.