The cause and effect link is not always obvious

This comic addresses many economic problems. There is no reason to think about unintended consequences or second-order effects, but you don't get the cause and effect right. 

Currently, there is an increased focus on cause-and-effect thinking within finance, as a result of the proliferation of factors used to explain returns. Some have stated that there are hundreds of factors that may drive returns, yet they often do not work outside of the training period, or they seem to periodically move in and out of favor. The problem is that there is insufficient consideration of the relationship between cause and effect. Factors are found and stories are developed to explain why a factor may be relevant, but that is not the same as positing a theory and then testing it. Correlation with a story is not causal.