Ignore causation, correlation is enough

The submissions in response to the BEIS corporate governance inquiry that have been posted so far make for interesting reading, especially on the board gender diversity question. 

Mr Michael Romberg, "a former civil servant who has held posts in HM Treaury and the Home office", observes that: "The biggest noise in this arena comes from bourgeois women." 

And one of the noisy bourgeois women, Helena Morrissey, somewhat astonishingly states that:

"There is plenty of empirical evidence (McKinsey, CSFB, Citibank, SocGen have all published extensive analyses, based on Global, Australian and European companies respectively) pointing to a positive correlation between gender diversity on boards and company performance. It is irrelevant that causality can’t be proved – arguably the smart companies ‘get it’ around diversity and are therefore likely to be more likely to be forward looking in other areas."

So, in this post-referendum topsy-turvy world, just as opinion is enough, never mind the evidence of experts, it seems that correlation is enough, never mind causality.

Here are some enlightening correlations: http://tylervigen.com/spurious-correlations