Thursday 23 October 2014

Argument Devoid of Context

I know a lazy argument when I see a lazy argument. This is especially in a subject where a keen professional interest and formal training, and where for more than a decade I have undertaken careful analysis; I am talking of the economics of the financial system.
Lazy arguments - often by people hiding their identity or with pedestrian viewpoints - are often coated with cherry-picked statistics that lack context. The trick here is to sound a "matter-of-fact" guy. And for people to take you seriously, you thrown in statements that make you sound profound. To non-suspecting members of the public, you may sound intelligent; until one looks at the argument being made carefully and asks the question: where is the context?
A case in point is a recent commentary by Bankelele(??) in the Daily Nation. His strategy is simple, take a list of bank ranking; don't bother to look at the comparison over time and against the size of the economy; observe that there is growth but it is not strong enough; rush into a conclusion that the banks that are "not big enough" are a let down. My take is that the conclusion is unmotivated; it could have been arrived at anyway without the pretence of grounding by anybody with a juandiced eye who sees everything as yellow.

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