Question

A government passes a law increasing taxes on banks. Two days later, there are several bank robberies. A politician who opposed the taxes claims that the new law is causing bank robberies. Which of the following explains the flaw in his argument?

Answer 1

The law and the robberies are only correlated by the fact that both involve banks.

Answer 2

The main flaw in this persons argument is one having to do with "causation vs. correlation"--the fact that the banks were robbed had nothing to do with the recent taxes, meaning that the two events were correlated, but not dependent.