What conspiracies? It was well known in 1953 who the Iranian government was overthrown for. It's well known now who is getting the various contracts and who is building our embassy. It's not a "conspiracy theory" just because the MSM doesn't report about it in the US. Our media didn't even report that there are 5 (maybe 6) carrier groups just off the Iranian coast on the orders of Bush.
Statistics is the old way of looking at relations. We now have systems science where we look at influences, synergies and more complex relations. Just like there are other non-linear systems. This is also true for other social and military models. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Systems_science http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-linearity http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regression_analysis http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nonlinear_regression http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forecasting As defined by the United States military Joint Forces Command (USJFCOM), effects-based operations are "a process for obtaining a desired strategic outcome or effect on the enemy through the synergistic and cumulative application of the full range of military and non-military capabilities at all levels of conflict." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Effects-Based_Operations The point is - it is useless as pointed out earlier to try and find a linear correlation between Democrats governing and the economy. It is the old way of doing things... Under a systemic view, and as a "complex adaptive system", one can see the effects and influences as an isolated system for the sake of gauging metrics. The synergies of philosophies, attitudes, ethics and interest biases all add up to which is "better for the economy". http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Systems_theory http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feedforward_neural_network A few years ago here on EliteTrader I described how I set up a homebrew trading system using Java + ANN + various software packages for analysis (Bayesian, Hidden Markov models, scripting capabilities) for identifying tape-reading signals for scalping currency futures - looking at T&S as well as orderbook. I do think this is how to do things for gaining an edge in future computer-assisted trading system as well - but the models themselves are very important - just like the time-series variables and variable aggregates/derivatives one chooses as input for a multi-layered perceptron neural network.
Oh, and another interesting thing is the "adaptability" of such systems - the "inherent intelligence"... The case for integrated intelligence, World Futures: The Journal of General Evolution http://www.mindfutures.com/Integrated-Inteligence/the-case-for-integrated-intelligence.html