That was a contrast from 2011, when the fortress balance sheets and more predictable earnings power of firms like JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo drew more buyers.

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But even if the AKP's rise to power was eminently predictable, its ability to consolidate its control over just about every organ of governance in Turkey as well as what was once a thriving free press, and change completely Turkey's strategic posture in just seven years was far from inevitable.

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The sort of problems governments increasingly face, they say, will be much less predictable than those associated with old great-power rivalries.

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They are attracted to the city-state's low taxes, virtually crime-free streets, pro-business policies and predictable government, with one political party in power since it gained independence in 1965.

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Kempton's response: Driver patterns are predictable, and motorists could control when utilities tapped their car for power, making sure they wouldn't be stranded.

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And demand response will likely be a tough sell in very deregulated electricity markets such as Texas, where customers can choose from dozens of power retailers that compete by offering the lowest, most predictable energy prices.

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And the reform I sign will not stifle the power of the free market -- it will simply bring predictable, responsible, sensible rules into the marketplace.

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My most important thesis is that the fundamental measures of information technology (such as the power of computing measured in calculations per second per constant dollar) follow remarkably predictable trajectories.

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But unlike other forms of renewable energy, such as solar or wind power, it has the further advantage that it is not intermittent, but can provide steady, predictable baseload electricity, all day and all night.

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