Flu-conomics

More or Less Friday, 1 May 2009 BBC Radio 4, 1330 BST Listen to the programme Have your say

This week the world was told to get ready for a global flu pandemic.

But with so few firm numbers, how can we predict what to expect?

And has the risk been reported responsibly?

Tim Harford tries to unpick the swine flu numbers.

When I'm 94

If we are living longer, will pensions companies cope?

Good news for older listeners: 77 is the new 65.

That is according to a slice of medical folklore recently repeated in the House of Lords.

But how fast is longevity increasing?

And have pensions providers got their sums right?

The evergreen Paul Vickers reports.

Stat-Nav

In a jam and no radio warning - what were the odds of that?

More or Less listener Andrew Leith challenged us to calculate the chance of a driver hearing a radio traffic report relevant to his or her journey.

We do the best we can with the help of the Highways Agency and BBC Radio 2's Sally Traffic.

The Formula of Doom

Did the 'Gaussian Copula Function' cause the global economic crisis?

Wired magazine recently blamed the credit crunch on a mathematical formula designed to measure risk in complex financial products.

We have come to know it in this office as The Formula of Doom.

Our tame mathematical finance expert Paul Wilmott explains what went wrong.

BBC Radio 4's More or Less is broadcast on Friday, 1 May at 1330 BST and repeated on Sunday, 3 May at 2000 BST.

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