Word: auto
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...winning architect who designed Seattle's futuristic glass-and-steel Central Library. Coolhaus is not your average ice cream truck. For one, it doesn't play annoying, repetitive jingles. It is a tricked-out former postal wagon with a Barbie-pink custom roof, shiny wheel rims (acquired at an auto-body shop in East L.A.) and lots of photos of famous buildings, including Louis Kahn's concrete-heavy Salk Institute in nearby San Diego. The menu, naturally, is totally architectural: a rotating selection of made-to-order ice cream sandwiches in flavors such as Mintimalism, Louis Kahntaloupe and Frank Behry...
House leaders seemed taken aback by the firestorm, even following last year's howls of outrage after U.S. auto executives flew into Washington on private jets to seek government bailouts. In part, they felt protected because the added planes - best known for flying generals and White House officials around the globe - also carry lawmakers on them approximately 15% of the time. And they do so amid comforts that most Americans who endure long security lines and cramped economy cabins could only dream about. (See the Top 10 Most Expensive Military Planes...
...waste of money during the recession. "Talk about the wrong message at the wrong time," Democratic Senator Claire McCaskill of Missouri said. "While American families are tightening their belts there is no way we should be buying extra executive jets." The anger had clearly spread. "Lawmakers justifiably pilloried the auto industry CEOs for flying on corporate jets," said Steve Ellis of the nonprofit group Taxpayers for Common Sense. "But now a few months later they are stuffing hundreds of millions into the defense budget for their own jets while the rest of America is trying to make ends meet...
...snapped back. The economy grew 7.9% in the second quarter and will now probably expand 8% or more this year. Evidence of increasing momentum appears almost every day. Factory production has begun to edge up, in part because Chinese consumers continue to spend money at a healthy pace. Auto sales, helped significantly by government subsidies for small-car purchases, hit an all-time record in April and will easily surpass those in the U.S. this year. Overall, retail sales in China this year are up 16%. (Read "Is China's Economy Strong Enough To Save the World...
...remains a relatively poor country, with an annual per capita income of $6,000, compared with $39,000 in the U.S. and $33,400 in the E.U. To be solidly middle class in China's big cities is to have an income of about $12,000. Brisk though auto sales may be, most Chinese still can't afford a Volkswagen or a Buick, let alone a BMW. Even as China's consumers feel richer, their share of its economy may not change much until Beijing enacts reforms to the health-care and social-security systems, steps that would give people...