The XX Factor: What women really think.

Bogus Trends Trend

I posted earlier this week on a bogus trend piece in the New York Times linking buoyant romance-novel sales to the recession. The piece offered no evidence beyond bland generalities, like "In a recession, what people want is a happy ending." But that was nothing in comparison to the whopper in today's Times: "Uptick in Vasectomies Seen as Sign of Recession."

I could list all the reasons the article doesn't hold up under scrutiny, but why bother? Just get a load of this hedge, placed conveniently right after the lede, so you know you can stop reading: "It is too early to proclaim a bona fide trend in elective sterilization, because no organization regularly tracks the number of vasectomies performed on an annual or even a monthly basis."

It's true the birth rate fell sharply during the Great Depression, but at least as of yet, there's no proof we're heading towards a vasectomy-induced population decline.