Word: betters
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...bottom in March, does that mean better times are ahead? Just because we made the bottom of a secular bear market doesn't mean we're in a new bull market. The history is that when you make the bottom of a secular bear market, in almost every situation, there has been a huge rally followed by a long period of churning back and forth in a big, broad trading range, anywhere from three to - in the case of Japan - 18 to 20 years. As for the rally, the usual rebound rally after one of these things is 71% over...
...quarter spurt is a modest one. But it's a vast improvement on the economic contraction of 3.1% that Germany suffered in the first quarter of 2009 - its fourth straight negative quarter. France's identical 0.3% advance contrasts its 2008 first-quarter shrinkage of 1.3%. Both economies benefited from better than expected consumer spending and higher exports led primarily by car sales - and in France's case, airplanes as well. (See pictures of Paris expanding...
...news elsewhere across the 16 nations who use the euro was mixed, with overall activity declining by 0.1%. But even that was better than the 0.5% drop economists had expected, with Greece and Portugal joining France and Germany by posting gains of 0.3% each. Meanwhile, Italy's economy shrank by 0.5% and the Netherlands' dropped 0.9%, while Austria and Belgium both contracted by 0.4%. Previously, the U.K. - which does not belong to the euro zone - reported that its expected 0.5% second-quarter decline had in fact been...
...what to make of all that? The U.K. aside, better than anticipated activity holds the hope that Europe may be following the U.S. in seeming to climb out of its deep economic stupor faster than expected - however gingerly. The challenge now is to sustain that improvement. Initial data released state statistics agencies indicates both French and German export boosts primarily benefited from renewed activity in Asia, which itself is at risk of waning. (See pictures of the dangers of printing money in Germany...
...women continue to insist on having an MRI? Part of it has to do with the culture of technology: we believe that newer and more is better. Part of it also can be traced to a me-too spillover from the diagnostic arena. As a diagnostic tool, MRIs can be useful in picking up what mammograms may not find - which is why the American Cancer Society, for example, recommends both screens for otherwise healthy women with a strong family history of the disease and younger women with dense breast tissue...