>Read down to paragraph 5.
>
>http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/27/world/europe/eu-is-pressed-to-reconsider-cuts-as-economic-cure.html?hp&_r=0
>
>There were some disputable theoretical elements to what Rogoff, et al did, but the real problem wasn't theoretical at all.
>
>It seems that the wizards at Harvard did their analysis in an Excel spreadsheet and one formula had a serious error in it.
>
>Of particular note is the nature of the error. It wasn't related to some obscure, esoteric math theory...
>
>no.. these geniuses just summed the wrong rows!!!!
>
>I've done some doozers, but it would be hard to top this one.

And historically one would laugh hysterically... this is not the first one. What can one expect from a quasi science which generally relies on approximation, thin samples, and tweaking the models to fit the bill - whoever pays that bill, usually we do.