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- - ~'-~ Whtby Free Pnm, Wedn'esday, ApnIl 10,1l996. Page 7 I Zadeh, a seholar and univer-sity professor, has produced a book on winning Poker strategies. Anyone who can bankroll a $400,000 cash prize isn't just a nutease -- he's r"Ch enough to belong in Mike Harris'Scbinet. (Tat doesn't mean he's not a nutcase, either. Just look at that cabinet.) But rich enough or flot, bis theonj indicates he might not put bis heart hi deficit cutting. If youwant your own COpy of Analyzing the Economy With Poker, cali 310-273-5968.. You get a phone message fr'om Norm, really y'OU do. M Poker economy I ~jI I e e e .Beibr we start into the meat ofthisweek's column, let's wrap up some unfinished business. Two or three weeks agio, following the day Darth Vader and his Evil Empire sent storm troopers to Queen's Park, I wrote a coluxnn with an error in it. Incommentsonthe Storm Trooper Riot, I reported that confronted by strikers, a cabinet minister had leaped backward into some shrubs. I likened this to what in hockey circles is called a dive. Now, while it was true that someone had thrown hiznself backwards into shrubs, that someone was not,, alas, a cabinet minisMter. It was a Queen's Park aide: one of those bright, young, resourceful people whose job it is to do things likeleaping into shrubs at the bidding of cabinet nunisters. It must be nice, one might add, to have someone faithful enough to so jump. -rve tried to elicit the same dedication from our pooch, Holly. But on command, the family Cockapoo simply cocks one ear, with a facial expression that somehow expresses her distaste for jumping backward into shrubs, and for those servile enough to do so. No let's get serious and talk about poker. Well, not exactly poker, but about govermnment deficits. Which are part of national economies, which do resemble, now that you mention it, a poker game. You may have missed a piece in the business section of the Sunday Star (page 2) entitled, 'He's willing to bet itfs bad to balance the U.S. budget.' Following this headline, a 600-word story outlined an economic theory of grand proportions, and, a contest offering a prize of $400,000 (U.S.) to anyone who could prove the economic theory wrong. The econoîmc theory is this: that national economies differ little fr-om poker games. Everybo4y is dealt a hand: rich people, poor people, miiddle class people, governments, banks, foreign traders. Like in a poker game, the guys who win can only do so because somne people lose. So if rich people win big, and banks win big, and foreign traders win big, then poor people, middle class people and goverfiments must loue. When goverrnents lose, this is called a budget deficit. Ifgovernments try to miile sure they don't lose, simply by balancing thefr budgets, then the losing must all come fr-om poor people and middle class people. And they muet loue big. Norm Zadeh's theory says that this is an observable phenomenon: five years of balanoed budgets are always followed by a depression. Because if poor people and middle class people lose long enough, the winners have nothing left to wini. Voila! a Depression! The Star article included a phone number, through which you can order a copy of Zadeh's original economie thesis. rve called this number, and although haven't received my phone bill yet, I did carefully spell it out to make sure it didn't say 'April Fool's,' or Loof Lirpa, the' well-known sports promoter, the same guy who brought yo u Raptor tickets last week (see the sports pages in this week's issue). Norm Zadeh's name does spell Hie Daz Mron backward. (Rie DazeMoron?) 100 YEARSAGO from the Frday, April 10s, 1896 edition of the WUItBYCRRONICLE The lire that destroyed Oshawa's DeMille Ladies' College on the night ofApril 6 could ho seen in Brooklin and from as far away as Lockport, New York. Three dogs in Whitby were poisoned Iast week There is good iSe for curling at the Whihy Arena in April for the first Urne in seven or eight years. A boy fromi the Barnardo Homes in England ls in jail fora week for stealing and trying to sei Mrs. George McGillivray's gold ring. 1.1 'l 1 I -- ___________ 1 à MjiI CREmnOqYAT 1L4GPOLE, 0NTAMJO IBOSPlrALC. 192M.3 Teoccason for this flagpole ceremony lu not known. The polo was erocted ln front of tho Administration Building at whatise now the Whitby Mental Health Centre, constructed in 1925. mhe buzilding, from which this photo was taken, will ho one of the firut to ho domolishod whon the new houpital opens later this year. Witby Mental H..lth Centre Archive.photo 10 YEARS AGO from the Wednesday, April 9e 1986 edition of the WflTBY FREE PIRESS " Downtown developer Steve Wagner says Downtown Wih is alive and rgesn with the Urnes. ge a " An environment.al asuesunent hearingise being held on the proposed Decom medical wasto station to be built in the Corridor Area. 0 Whitby's l6th annual sports recognition night will be held at Heydenshoro Pavilion in June. " For the second year in a row, Brooklin-Whitlby Peacock Crouch Minor Bantains hockey team has won the OMHA Championuhip. 35 YEARS AGO from the Thursday, April 6, 1961 edition of the WBITBY WEEKLy NEWS a A proposaI to flouridate Whitby'u drinking water ls being studied by the Ontario County Health Unit. 0 Whitby has terminated ts program of providing free trees toproperty owners. 0 Hugh O'Connell is Whitby's newest lawyer, with an office at 306 Dundas Street West, ae mass tubereulosis testing program lu under way in Whitby. < Li 1