Q3 - In recent decades, government efforts

[mshinners]

Question Type:
Explain a Result (a second already in this section!)

Stimulus Breakdown:
The government has been successful in fighting counterfeiting, especially in their endeavor to remove bills from circulation. However, counterfeiters are still having an easy time buying stuff (or depositing money).

Answer Anticipation:
Weird one. We need to know how the government could be successful in the fight against counterfeiters, while bankers/merchants would still be falling for it. I didn't have a specific idea heading into the answers, but I'm on the lookout for anything that would relate the government's success to the failures of others.

Correct answer:
(D)

Answer choice analysis:
(A) Opposite. If anything, this answer makes the paradox worse.

(B) Out of scope/opposite. If we assume that these new designs are also hard for merchants/banks to use to find counterfeits, then it might be in scope. However, even then, we also have to assume that the counterfeiters are having an easier time adapting than the merchants/banks, and this answer already tells us the counterfeiters are having difficulty.

(C) Out of scope. The knowledge of the counterfeiters has nothing to do with the success of either the government or the merchants/bankers.

(D) Bingo. It might not jump out at first, but any answer that relates the government's success to the merchants/bankers deserves a second look. Here, the government cracking down has led the merchants/bankers to relax. If the merchants/bankers think the government has been so successful that they don't have to be vigilant, it'll be easier for counterfeiters to use fake money at those locations.

(E) Out of scope. The cost of these efforts has no bearing on their success, or on the success of merchants/banks to avoid falling prey to the fake money.

Takeaway/Pattern: It's fine if you don't have a predicted answer for Explain a Result questions (though you often will). Be sure to take a wide view as to what could work as an answer. Here, I left anything that related the government to the merchants/banks, which luckily led to the correct answer without much extra work.

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