Are oil prices manipulated prior to elections? This paper provides evidence that they are based upon a sample of legislative elections for 32 countries over 27 years: Do Politicians Manipulate Gasoline Prices?, by David Wessel WSJ Washington Wire : Before the recent U.S. congressional election, there were widespread, unsubstantiated assertions that the Bush administration somehow had manipulated gasoline prices so they’d fall before the November congressional elections. Economists pooh-poohed them. Now a couple of International bollywood actress onetary Fund economists, looking through data on gas prices and legislative elections from 1978 to 2004 in 32 countries from Australia to the U.S., say there may be something to this conspiracy theory. “Focusing on real” – inflation-adjusted – “gasoline prices alone, we observed that they declined 0.3%, on average, during ‘normal’ quarters and about 0.7% during quarters of electoral campaign. Moreover, in 15 countries of the sample, this difference exceeded 2 percentage points, whereas it exceeded 6 percentage points in seven countries,” economists Claudio Paiva and Rodriga Moita write in new IMF working paper . ... Though the paper appears to be carefully done, I'm skeptical. In particular, though there is a theoretical model in the paper, how the price manipulation is carried out isn't completely clear.

I love living in KL, really I do, but .... where are all the darn fiddleheads??!! Perhaps I should explain. A few months ago, shortly after I learned that a relocation to KL was in our future, I came upon this thread on pucuk web based email aku (fiddlehead ferns) in Malaysia on foodcentric site egullet. "Eureka!" I thought to myself. "Yet another reason to anticipate with growling stomach the upcoming move." Dave and I had just returned from a stay in a small village in north-central Bali, where one morning we and our guide Nyoman scoured the forest around Lake Tamblingan for fiddleheads and wild mushrooms. Though we came up emtpy on the fungi front, we (OK -- Nyoman, primarily) scored fairly fantastically in the fern department, and that evening we dined on pakis urab , a cool dish of fern tips in a spicy coconut dressing. That meal reminded me how much I adore the slightly asparagus-y, woodsy flavor of the tightly coiled, several-inch diameter fiddleheads available with the rains in northern California and parts of the American north and northeast. With a few morels and a sturdy green like escarole they make for a lovely warm salad.

Last May I wrote a post entitled "Faraway Places" in which I spoke about the detailed view of visitors and their preferences thanks to SiteMeter's real-time stats. It's interesting to observe how things have changed in those eight months. A few highlights: Then: about 52-53% of visitors were from Italy, 32-33% from the USA. Now: 44% from US, 35% from Italy. An ever-larger percentage of visitors is coming from "other" countries, notably Canada, Scandinavia (especially Sweden), Germany, France, Belgium and...Slovenia?? Yes, Slovenia. Canada just surpassed the UK to go to #3. Some days the "other countries" outnumber Italy and almost match the US. There seems to be a broad desire for knowledge about Italy's wines...and New York restaurants. Overall site traffic and page views are 3-4 times greater than in May, hurray. Then: US visitors seemed to come from all over. I recognized some regulars, of course, but otherwise, no geographical emergency medicine witness ocus. Now: The overwhelming majority of US visitors comes from the New York City area. Something tells me that's a good thing. They search both for wine and restaurant info. I think it's good to have a local base. Shows I'm relevant, so to speak. Then: Over 50% of visitors had Italian as the language on their computer. English was in the low 40s. Obviously, there wasn't much readership in those "other" countries, unless of course they were Britain and Canada. Now: English 54%, Italian 36%. German, French and Spanish follow.

Are oil prices manipulated prior to elections? This paper provides evidence that they are based upon a sample of legislative elections for 32 countries over 27 years: Do Politicians Manipulate Gasoline Prices?, by David Wessel WSJ Washington Wire : Before the recent U.S. congressional election, there were widespread, unsubstantiated assertions that the Bush administration somehow had manipulated gasoline prices so they’d fall before the November congressional elections. Economists pooh-poohed them. Now a couple of International Monetary Fund economists, looking through data on gas prices and legislative elections from 1978 to 2004 in 32 countries from Australia to the U.S., say there may be something to this conspiracy theory. “Focusing on real” – inflation-adjusted – “gasoline prices alone, we observed leads software hat they declined 0.3%, on average, during ‘normal’ quarters and about 0.7% during quarters of electoral campaign. Moreover, in 15 countries of the sample, this difference exceeded 2 percentage points, whereas it exceeded 6 percentage points in seven countries,” economists Claudio Paiva and Rodriga Moita write in new IMF working paper . ... Though the paper appears to be carefully done, I'm skeptical. In particular, though there is a theoretical model in the paper, how the price manipulation is carried out isn't completely clear.

I love living in KL, really I do, but .... where are all the darn fiddleheads??!! Perhaps I should explain. A few months ago, shortly after I learned that a relocation to KL was in our future, I came upon this thread on pucuk paku (fiddlehead ferns) in Malaysia on foodcentric site egullet. "Eureka!" I thought to myself. "Yet another reason to anticipate with growling stomach the upcoming move." Dave and I had just returned from a stay in a small village in north-central Bali, where one morning we and our guide Nyoman scoured the forest around Lake Tamblingan for fiddleheads and wild mushrooms. Though we came up emtpy on the fungi front, we (OK -- Nyoman, primarily) columbia house dvd club phone cored fairly fantastically in the fern department, and that evening we dined on pakis urab , a cool dish of fern tips in a spicy coconut dressing. That meal reminded me how much I adore the slightly asparagus-y, woodsy flavor of the tightly coiled, several-inch diameter fiddleheads available with the rains in northern California and parts of the American north and northeast. With a few morels and a sturdy green like escarole they make for a lovely warm salad.

"That will never work." "... That said, the labor laws make it difficult mobile workforce management or us to do a lot of the suggestions [you] put out. And we do live in a lawsuit oriented society."" "Can you show me some research that demonstrates that this will work?" "Well, if you had some real-world experience, then you would understand." "I don't think our customers will go for that, and without them we'd never be able to afford to try this." "It's fantastic, but the salesforce won't like it." "The salesforce is willing to give it a try, but [major retailer] won't stock it." "There are government regulations and this won't be permitted." "Well, this might work for other people, but I think we'll stick with what we've got." "We'll let someone else prove it works... it won't take long to catch up." "Our team doesn't have the technical chops to do this." "Maybe in the next budget cycle." "We need to finish this initiative first." "It's been done before." "It's never been done before." "We'll get back to you on this." "We're already doing it." All quotes actually overheard, or read on blogs/comments about actual good ideas.

Are oil prices manipulated prior to elections? This paper provides evidence that they are based upon a sample of legislative best price cruises lections for 32 countries over 27 years: Do Politicians Manipulate Gasoline Prices?, by David Wessel WSJ Washington Wire : Before the recent U.S. congressional election, there were widespread, unsubstantiated assertions that the Bush administration somehow had manipulated gasoline prices so they’d fall before the November congressional elections. Economists pooh-poohed them. Now a couple of International Monetary Fund economists, looking through data on gas prices and legislative elections from 1978 to 2004 in 32 countries from Australia to the U.S., say there may be something to this conspiracy theory. “Focusing on real” – inflation-adjusted – “gasoline prices alone, we observed that they declined 0.3%, on average, during ‘normal’ quarters and about 0.7% during quarters of electoral campaign. Moreover, in 15 countries of the sample, this difference exceeded 2 percentage points, whereas it exceeded 6 percentage points in seven countries,” economists Claudio Paiva and Rodriga Moita write in new IMF working paper . ... Though the paper appears to be carefully done, I'm skeptical. In particular, though there is a theoretical model in the paper, how the price manipulation is carried out isn't completely clear.

"That will never work." "... That said, the labor laws make it difficult for us to do a lot of the suggestions [you] put out. And we do live in a lawsuit oriented society."" "Can you show me some research that demonstrates that this will work?" "Well, if you had some real-world experience, then you would understand." "I don't think our customers will go for that, and without them we'd never be able to afford to try this." arrested development screensaver It's fantastic, but the salesforce won't like it." "The salesforce is willing to give it a try, but [major retailer] won't stock it." "There are government regulations and this won't be permitted." "Well, this might work for other people, but I think we'll stick with what we've got." "We'll let someone else prove it works... it won't take long to catch up." "Our team doesn't have the technical chops to do this." "Maybe in the next budget cycle." "We need to finish this initiative first." "It's been done before." "It's never been done before." "We'll get back to you on this." "We're already doing it." All quotes actually overheard, or read on blogs/comments about actual good ideas.