A remarkable rate that would make even Bernie Madoff blush

There is fairly unambiguous evidence, instead, that insiders make above average returns. One disturbing example is that members of Congress, who often gain access to inside information about a company while they are lobbied and who have some ability to influence the fate of companies through legislation, return a profit on their investments that beats market averages by 5 to 10 percent per year, a remarkable rate that would make even Bernie Madoff blush. 

N. Silver, The Signal and the Noise (2012), 342

On the other hand there was culture

On the other hand there was culture. New Orleans does many things well, but there are two things it proudly refuses to do. New Orleans does not move quickly, and New Orleans does not place much faith in authority. If it did those things, New Orleans would not really be New Orleans  It would also have been much better prepared to deal with Katrina, since those are the exact two things you need to do when a hurricane threatens to strike.

N. Silver, The Signal and the Noise (2012), 109

The importance of the industrial revolution is hard to overstate

The importance of the industrial revolution is hard to overstate. Throughout essentially all of human history, economic growth had proceeded at a rate of 0.1% a year, enough to allow for a very gradual increase in population, but not any growth of per capita living standards. And then, suddenly there was progress where there had been none.

N. Silver, The Signal and the Noise (2012), 6