Math Is Hard

Math Is Hard

Since I’ve been giving Gary Gensler such a hard time for refusing to admit a mistake, I thought it would be appropriate to pointed out just how colossally I screwed up the math in my column on the Pentagon budget. (Lucky for me it was behind the sub wall!)

The correction, which runs in this week’s issue, is also behind a subwall, so I’ll post below in all its mortifying glory:

Correction: Those Pesky Decimals

Facebook
Twitter
Email
Flipboard
Pocket

Since I’ve been giving Gary Gensler such a hard time for refusing to admit a mistake, I thought it would be appropriate to pointed out just how colossally I screwed up the math in my column on the Pentagon budget. (Lucky for me it was behind the sub wall!)

The correction, which runs in this week’s issue, is also behind a subwall, so I’ll post below in all its mortifying glory:

Correction: Those Pesky Decimals

There were three computation errors in Christopher Hayes’s March 2 “Cut the Military Budget.” The Pentagon budget request represents a 13 (not 12) percent increase over last year’s budget. The reported Obama Defense Department appropriation would represent a 2.2 percent increase over last year’s budget (not 8 percent). And regarding the F-22 Raptor fighter jet, $3.4 billion divided by 95,000 works out to $35,800 per job (not $35.8 million). So it is not true that “more jobs would be created by hiring people to shred the money.” We deeply regret the errors and have FedExed a new abacus to our Washington bureau.

Thank you for reading The Nation!

We hope you enjoyed the story you just read, just one of the many incisive, deeply-reported articles we publish daily. Now more than ever, we need fearless journalism that shifts the needle on important issues, uncovers malfeasance and corruption, and uplifts voices and perspectives that often go unheard in mainstream media.

Throughout this critical election year and a time of media austerity and renewed campus activism and rising labor organizing, independent journalism that gets to the heart of the matter is more critical than ever before. Donate right now and help us hold the powerful accountable, shine a light on issues that would otherwise be swept under the rug, and build a more just and equitable future.

For nearly 160 years, The Nation has stood for truth, justice, and moral clarity. As a reader-supported publication, we are not beholden to the whims of advertisers or a corporate owner. But it does take financial resources to report on stories that may take weeks or months to properly investigate, thoroughly edit and fact-check articles, and get our stories into the hands of readers.

Donate today and stand with us for a better future. Thank you for being a supporter of independent journalism.

Thank you for your generosity.

Ad Policy
x