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Glossary Politics & World

Executive order

A directive issued by a head of government to the executive branch. It can be reversed by a successor and can be challenged in court, so it is weaker than legislation.

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Deflation

A sustained fall in the general price level. It sounds welcome but tends to delay spending…

On the record

Everything a source says may be published and attributed to them by name. This is the…

Machine learning

Building software that improves at a task by finding patterns in data rather than by being…

Mining

Competing to add the next block to a proof-of-work blockchain by burning computing power on a…

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