Word: american
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...great American job-creation machine always has been and will continue to be private enterprise. The problem is that companies are beat-up from the longest economic contraction since the Great Depression. Plenty of economists think the worst is now behind us, but firms are still plagued by uncertainty about how fast the economy will recover. Nor can they plan responsibly without knowing the bottom-line costs of the massive new initiatives out of Washington on health care reform and carbon-emission regulation. Even companies that are financially fit often don't feel like taking the risk of ramping...
...Just ask small businesses. American Express did that in a January survey, asking, What would most spur companies to go out and hire? An increase in customer demand, according to 42% of the respondents. Tax credits and better access to loans trailed, at 11% and 5%, respectively. (See pictures of retailers that have gone out of business...
...that? Well, focusing on demand is a tricky thing to do. For decades, the economy's engine of demand has been American consumers - a population now overindebted, underemployed and endowed with a newfound sense of thrift. The explosion in credit-card and home-mortgage debt before the recession tells us the demand that was there was never sustainable. This is why the President now talks about doubling exports over the next five years and the importance of passing trade agreements with countries like South Korea, Panama and Colombia. If we can't sell to ourselves, there is at least partial...
When he was President of Guatemala, from 2000 to 2004, Alfonso Portillo promised a crusade against one of the Central American country's biggest scourges: corruption. "Corruption and impunity are part of the perverse way our political, economic and social systems function," Portillo said in 2002. A year later, he even proposed letting the U.N. establish a commission in Guatemala to help the country?s fledgling judicial institutions root out the sleaze...
...later to a Paris bank account jointly held by his daughter and ex-wife. Portillo was indicted in New York City because some of the banks and branches he allegedly used were located there. In a statement, Bharara said his office is committed "to prosecuting those who use American banks and financial institutions to launder ill-gotten gains." Recently, the office has launched criminal cases against the likes of Osama bin Laden and a Somali pirate...