J. Michael Andresen

1. Freedom (January) Freedom House is an international organization that studies democracy and freedom in the world, publishing an annual report on how many of countries are free, partly free, or not free. The 2012 report calculated that 87 of the world’s 193 nations were “free” in 2011. Will freedom advance, stay stagnant, or retreat in this year’s report, covering 2012? The number of times each answer has occurred since the fall of the iron curtain is indicated in parentheses. Note: the ten worst "free" countries (with the highest likelihood of being downgraded) are Antigua and Barbuda, Botswana, El Salvador, Guyana, India, Indonesia, Jamaica, Mali, Montenegro, and Peru. The fifteen best "partly free" countries (with the highest likelihood of being upgraded) are Albania, Bolivia, Ecuador, Lesotho, Macedonia, Mexico, Moldova, Paraguay, Philippines, Senegal, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, Tonga, and Turkey. How will the number of free coun...

12. Stocks (December) What will be the year-end close for the Dow? a. under 10,800 b. 10,800 to 11,600 c. 11,600 to 12,400 d. 12,400 to 13,200 e. 13,200 to 14,000 f. greater than 14,000 The Dow Jones Industrial Average (shown above over the last five trading days of 2012) ended the year at 13,104, an increase of 7.3% over the year. This means that the answer to Question 12 on the 2012 Prognostication Quiz is D .  The last winners of the year: Keila, Megan, Cameron, Grant, Stacey, Gloria, Ben, Todd, Ekrem, Adrian, Zoe, Chris C., Janet, Jason, Ryan, Michael, Leanne, Jeff, Beth, Rachel, Eric, Jan, Craig, Hannah, Liz, Dave, Paul, Ted, Zhiqi, Missy, and Larry. Leader Board It was a close one! On the last day of trading, the Dow dipped briefly into Cameron's territory before hovering most of the day in Megan's territory (see the colored bar beneath the Dow Jones graph). Only at the very end of the day, after the outlines of a fiscal cliff deal had been reached, did...