Word: argumentive
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...rumor mongers, cheats and criminals. But they have not, by and large, been wrong in their choice of targets. Bear and Lehman died because they were undercapitalized. Merrill's own mismanagement helped to chase it into the arms of B of A. Yet in the case of AIG, the argument is that the company would have remained afloat had its stock price not been driven down, which triggered a credit downgrading that then required AIG to raise $14 billion in capital overnight to meet collateral requirements on its credit default swaps...
There's a furious argument over whether shorts hastened the demise of Lehman and AIG, cutting the off their oxygen when it was desperately needed. And some have laid the blame at the feet of SEC commissioner Cox. "Chris Cox is responsible for the largest destruction of wealth in U.S. history," hissed Mad Money maestro Jim Cramer on his CNBC show on Tuesday. "Because of Cox, the shorts won." (Republican nominee John McCain called Thursday for Cox to be fired - the same Cox some conservatives touted as a possible running mate earlier this year. President Bush said he fully supports...
There may have been some truth to that argument. Money funneled to HIV and malaria control has soared in the last decade, to almost $9 billion and roughly $1 billion a year, respectively (those figures, too, are hazy estimates), although in the case of HIV especially, money has not always been channeled into disease-control programs based on the best scientific evidence. (That's particularly true for politically sensitive - and, therefore, under-funded or ignored - interventions that aim to prevent high-risk sex and drug abuse...
...morning I watched a fierce argument between nurses and the relatives of a woman whose unborn baby was already dead inside her. As she sat on a bed awaiting an emergency C-section, her relatives pleaded that they could not afford 400,000 leones (about $135) for the operation. Finally the woman's aunt handed some 250,000 leones (about $85) to a nurse, who counted the banknotes before jamming them into her pocket, explaining to me that the money was "for drugs and to pay the doctor." Since nurses and doctors earn about $150 a month, "the staff...
...There's an argument to be made that if this kind of regulatory approach had continued into the Bush years, some emerging financial market excesses might have been nipped in the bud. Until very recently, the Bush Administration has showed no interest whatsoever in tightening financial regulation, and at the Federal Reserve Alan Greenspan was if anything even less interested. The Fed had the power to impose stricter mortgage lending rules even on non-banks, which it finally did earlier this year - banning, among other things, the making of loans "without regard to borrowers' ability to repay the loan from...