But this seemingly mechanical exercise of comparing prices and calculating margins is rife with subjective interference and methodological sleights of hand.

FORBES: Protectionist Antidumping Regime is a Pox on America's Glass House

Indur Goklany, a policy analyst in the Department of Interior, has documented similar sleights of hand when it comes to predictions of food and water shortages due to global warming.

FORBES: The Global Warming Establishment Needs More than Cosmetic Fixes

Instead came two all-too-political sleights of hand: a string of over-optimistic economic assumptions and the misleading message that soaking the rich could absolve the other 98% of the population from personal sacrifice.

ECONOMIST: Politics and the British budget