Super Tuesday

There has been increasing talk about the potential restoration of a gold standard arising from people and governments across the world seeking to protect themselves from the weaponization of the United States dollar’s world reserve currency status. How long can dollar hegemony last when the government behind the dollars is sanctioning people and governments around the world with abandon? There must be a way out of this mess, and the many centuries long history of using gold as money points to one tried-and-true path.

Submitted by Salil Mehta Of Statistical Ideas

The Flip-Flopping Pollster

How poor have the election forecasters been this year?  It is a topic many are discussing given the large number of upsets we've had during the Primaries.  For example, statistician Nate Silver (who started the campaign season proclaiming Trump had <2% chance of being nominated) by March 1 predicted with 94% probability that Trump would win Alaska (he lost). 

Democratic presidential hopeful Senator Bernie Sanders has made it clear that the fight for the nomination ain’t over till it’s over at the Democratic National Convention in July. Bernie Sanders was leading the race in delegates till the last Super Tuesday votes, when the lead went to Hillary Clinton. Up until that point Hillary was leading in total delegates if you count in the super delegates, something the biased media had been doing to falsely present the contest as over and Hillary the presumptive nominee.

Tuesday was supposed to be all about Arizona and Utah where voters will soon make their choice for the Republican and Democratic presidential nominees.

Polls in the two states as well as Democratic caucuses in Idaho will of course be overshadowed by this morning’s terrorist attacks in Brussels, but this evening’s electoral drama will still be watched closely as the outcome in Utah will be key to determining whether Trump has a chance at reaching the 1,237 delegates he needs to avoid a contested convention in July.

In addition to the usual suspects (WaPo, HuffPo) over the past few days a new media nemesis has emerged for Trump: the Rupert Murdoch-owned Wall Street Journal.

On Thursday, Trump posted several of tweets in response to a Journal editorial that criticized him for refusing to participate in a debate next week, for being unwilling to consult foreign policy experts and other issues. This is what he said: