More or Less

I just discovered a very interesting program on BBC Radio 4: More or Less. It is presented by Tim Harford, author of the Financial Time's "The Undercover Economist" column and of the book of the same title. I had long ago read this, which I recommend, but did not know he had a nationwide radio show on statistics and economics, explaining many deep and arcane concepts, such as OTC swaps, for the general audience (well I guess these are deep and arcane, as a former quant OTC Swaps are easy for me to understand - but not necessarily to value, of course). The above linked website contains summaries of every show and you can subscribe to the podcast, as well as download shows more than 7 days old and without BBC's iplayer (which is limited to UK listeners). Unfortunately I just caught the last episode (I listen to radio or watch TV very rarely) but there is a nice back catalogue that I will go through and the new series starts in April. It is one thing to be skeptical of alternative medicine and parapsychology, but we really need more people to be skeptical of finanical claims of the city and the governement, as we now know this can have a huge effect on everyone. The more people understand how the smoke and mirrors were pulled over our eyes by the entirely avoidable ongoing and, worryingly, not yet finished, worldwide financial debacle, the better.