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Damn Excel! How the 'most important software application of all time' is ruining the world
Apparently some really smart people have trouble mastering Microsoft Office. Early Wednesday morning, in an e-mail that went out to reporters around 2 A.M., Harvard professors Carmen Reinhart and Kenneth Rogoff copped to making an Excel error in their research paper tying high levels of government debt to low levels of growth. The paper, "Growth in Time of Debt," has become a powerful data point for those who argue against government spending even to revive the economy -- Congressman Paul Ryan cited it in his most recent budget -- and is the basis for the two professors' best-selling book This Time is Different. ... (full story)