Back in the 1960s, I read a book titled How to Lie with Statistics. I just thought of the book again after reading some stock market babble such as "the market was mixed". It made me think about how, as long as we base how things are going on a variable, particularly one that can be manipulated by governments or anyone with money, we are just playing a big game.

Take housing values. We are told that houses are worth more today than 10 years ago. Or less. Or the same, it doesn't matter. Why? Because we get told that, at least in the US, in terms of US$.