I am a Consultant with Fulcrum Inquiry, LLP, an accounting and economics consulting firm that performs economic damages analysis involving commercial litigation, financial investigations, business valuations, and forensic accounting.
Brian Nolte
Author's posts
Mar 04
An Example of “Useless” Research that Isn’t
Over the years, Federal funding for the social sciences has come under fire from critics of all sorts, including the House of Representatives, which passed an amendment in 2012 to completely cut the National Science Foundation (NSF) funding for political science in particular. The argument in favor of these cuts usually sounds something like what …
Permanent link to this article: https://betweenthenumbers.net/2013/03/an-example-of-useless-research-that-isnt/
Permanent link to this article: https://betweenthenumbers.net/2013/03/top-five-reasons-that-chocolate-doesnt-create-more-nobel-laureates-for-your-country/
Feb 27
Some Catholics Will Be Much Better Represented in the Upcoming Papal Election
About two weeks after Pope Benedict XVI vacates the papacy on February 28, the College of Cardinals will elect a new Roman Pontiff. These Cardinal Electors (117 in all) will come from around the world to meet in a Conclave famous for its white smoke/black smoke method of communicating election results to the outside world. …
Permanent link to this article: https://betweenthenumbers.net/2013/02/some-catholics-will-be-much-better-represented-in-the-upcoming-papal-election/
Feb 25
Gushing Actors = Gushing Americans?
At yesterday’s Oscar Academy Awards ceremony, various actors and filmmakers delivered emotional acceptance speeches littered with thanksgiving, superlatives, and mushy words. The Economist asks the whimsical question of whether the Best Actors and Actresses have progressively delivered more gushing speeches since 1972. To answer this question, the publication introduced the “gushing index”, which is calculated …
Permanent link to this article: https://betweenthenumbers.net/2013/02/gushing-actors-gushing-americans/
Oct 17
Investing in College: A Lesson in Evaluating Investment Returns
The common practice of investing in a university education to receive lifelong returns of larger salaries deserves additional scrutiny in the current environment of rising tuition, ballooning student-debt, and high unemployment among college grads. Smart Money attempted to provide guidance, but botched the return on investment calculation. The publication recently scored the country’s 50 most expensive universities …
Permanent link to this article: https://betweenthenumbers.net/2012/10/investing-in-college-a-lesson-in-evaluating-investment-returns/
Jun 07
A “New” Method of Financing University Education that isn’t New
FixUC, a student-based organization, claims to have found the solution to rising student debt and education costs. The proposal: instead of paying tuition to attend university, students should pay the university a 5% share of their future income for twenty years after graduation. FixUC’s founder and President, Chris LoCascio, explains the logic underlying the initiative, …
Permanent link to this article: https://betweenthenumbers.net/2012/06/a-new-method-of-financing-university-education-that-isnt-new/
Feb 29
A Primer on Regression Analysis
Regression analysis is a statistical technique that is commonly used in litigation because of its unique ability to ascertain both liability and damages. Specifically, litigation invariably involves questions of (i) whether event x caused event y, and (ii) if so, how much did y change because of x. As regression is used more frequently among …
Permanent link to this article: https://betweenthenumbers.net/2012/02/a-primer-on-regression-analysis/
Feb 24
Is the NBA More Competitive After the Lockout?
The lockout shortened the NBA season by nearly two months while the number games was not proportionately reduced, resulting in a more compacted game schedule and shorter resting periods between games. Is it possible that the lack of rest equalizes the playing field (or court in this case) by rewarding young athleticism at the expense …
Permanent link to this article: https://betweenthenumbers.net/2012/02/is-the-nba-more-competitive-after-the-lockout/
Dec 15
The 12 Days Of Christmas – A Lesson In How a Complex Appraisal Can Go Astray
For the first time ever, the cost of the gifts featured in the Christmas carol, “Twelve Days of Christmas,” totals more than $100,000. Financial services company, PNC Wealth Management, just released its 28th annual estimate of the “Christmas price index”, a whimsical economic indicator that tallies the prices of the following basket of Christmas gifts …
Permanent link to this article: https://betweenthenumbers.net/2011/12/the-12-days-of-christmas-a-lesson-in-how-a-complex-appraisal-can-go-astray/
Mar 01
Top Five Reasons that Chocolate Doesn’t Create More Nobel Laureates for Your Country
March 1, 2013
The article “Chocolate Consumption, Cognitive Function, and Nobel Laureates” recently published in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) demonstrates that even published research may contain errors. The author, Franz H. Messerli, examines the correlation between countries’ chocolate consumption per capita and Nobel laureates per 10 million people. The linear relationship is strong, as shown …
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