Barry Ritholtz, Columnist

Markets and Pundits Have a Data-Point Fixation

It's better to think of the latest economics number or poll as part of a film rather than as a snapshot.

Wake me up when it's over.

Photographer: Richard Baker
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Data is the raw material we use as the basis for analysis.

Investors demand it. Baseball fans love it. Quants live for it. Pollsters depend on it. Data is the difference between anecdote and evidence, between opinion and facts, between life and death (ask a surgeon or airline pilot).