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The Misery Index April 2, 2009

Posted by tomflesher in Academia, Economics, US Politics.
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The Misery Index is a measure of national economic health derived by adding the unemployment rate to the rate of inflation. It was famously used by Jimmy Carter to declare that Gerald Ford, under whom the rate had risen to 12.5%, had no right to run the country, and then by Ronald Reagan to declare that Carter was unfit for the presidency after it rose to over 20%. (It’s available in real time at MiseryIndex.us.) (more…)

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The point value of a passivity November 19, 2008

Posted by tomflesher in Uncategorized.
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Sports are weird. Sometimes the things that determine the winner of a contest aren’t the on-field scores, at least not directly. Clock management, penalties, and other intangibles often end up determining the winner. How can we properly value those sorts of events? I’m going to post a brief analysis of an easy case, passivity warnings in international wrestling.

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Natural government need not be shifted October 7, 2008

Posted by tomflesher in Canada.
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It’s Tory Tuesday!

A number of commentators have discussed Stephen Harper’s attempt to move the government of Canada rightward as well as fill a niche as the “natural governing party” of Canada. That seems at odds to me – I would think that the natural government is a party of the radical centre, and that attempting to fill that niche would require a step centreward by a given party rather than an attempt to move the country.

My conjecture: Harper’s ideal of Canadian government does not match that of the average Canadian citizen. I’ll take a look at an editorial and a specific case, then make a prediction, after the jump.

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