J. Michael Andresen

Welcome, all, to the 2017 Prognostication Quiz! We have a fun year ahead of us with sports, politics, economics, and hopefully a number of untimely deaths. We have 42 entrants this year, which is down 4 from last year. 1. Freedom Freedom House is an international organization that studies democracy and freedom in the world, publishing an annual report on how many countries it calculates to be free, partly free, or not free. The 2016 report calculated that 86 of the world’s 196 nations were free in 2015. Will freedom advance, stay stagnant, or retreat in this year’s report, covering 2016? Note: the seven  worst  free countries (with the highest likelihood of being downgraded) are Botswana, El Salvador, Guyana, India, Jamaica, Peru, and Suriname. The nineteen  best  partly free countries (with the highest likelihood of being upgraded) are Albania, Bolivia, Dominican Republic, East Timor, Ecuador, Fiji, Georgia, Indonesia, Lesotho, Malawi, Mexico, Moldova, Monten...

12. Stocks (December 30) The Dow Jones Industrial Average index is currently at around 17,500. How will stocks do in this election year? What will be the year-end close for the Dow? a. under 16,000 b. 16,000 to 16,750 c. 16,750 to 17,500 d. 17,500 to 18,250 e. 18,250 to 19,000 f. greater than 19,000 The final close for the Dow is 19,762.60, making it a great bull year for stocks. The market was especially entranced with Donald Trump in the White House, anticipating infrastructure spending and higher interest rates. Only two people thought stocks would do this well: Miriam S. and Missy A. You would all be richer if you had their help investing your money. Final Leader Board Stacey C. managed to stave off a rash of deaths in December, which was the only thing that could have toppled him once he got so many things right in November. There were some deaths toward the end of the year, but they were not the correct deaths. Some wags are saying that Betty White won the 2...