Sunday, November 25, 2007

Green Econometrics

If you are curious about the numbers involved in the emerging "green economy," surf by my friend Michael Davies' really wonderful site, Green Econometrics. Someone's got to mine the data; do the numbers, and analyse the results for the rest of us. At least if you are as averse to counting beans, or worse yet predicting bean totals, as I am. Econometrics is the science of applying statistical methodologies and quantitative analysis to study, analyse and understand economics.

I first met Mike in the eighties when he hired me to join Marketing Strategies International, a small skunk-works marketing research team that consulted with Ron Roner to help Apple target market niches prior to the introduction of the first Macintosh. Even back then, Mike's favorite book was the Statistical Abstract of the United States. That's right. And fancy regressions were his forte. Since that time, he's gone on to a bunch of Wall Street jobs, crunching numbers and developing data for financial mavens. He got his Bachelor's from Columbia, and his MBA from UCLA. Sort of a bi-coastal guy. And then, he got his CFA to top it all off. You want numbers, Mike is your guy.

So what's the big deal? Just this: we're entering into uncharted waters right now in our journey through endless economic cycles - as we shift from resource exploitation and excess to conservation and alternative resources. Nobody is sure just exactly what's going to happen, and when. So who do you call? The denizons of data; number crunchers extraordinaire; trend prospectors; and, heavy weight analysts. Who else?

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