Word: billion
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...countries, he said Washington's relationship with Beijing would "shape the 21st century." In recent months, Beijing has started to throw its weight around. China seeks - and will almost certainly soon get - greater voting rights in the IMF. In June, China agreed to buy up to $50 billion in bonds issued by the IMF to boost the fund's capacity to deal with the global financial crisis. Earlier this year, Chinese leaders, worried about the strength of the U.S. dollar and the safety of their own $763.5 billion investment in U.S. Treasury Department debt, called for the creation...
...great gobs of money to state-owned banks that, with Beijing's forceful encouragement, are lending to state-owned companies participating in infrastructure construction. Skeptics are frightened by the amount of cash being shoveled out the doors. The central bank recently announced that new loans in June totaled $224 billion. That was more than double the previous month's amount and brought new bank lending in the first six months of the year to nearly $1.1 trillion, exceeding the total...
...love Netflix, the online rental service that delivers movies and TV shows to your mailbox. Since its start in 1999, the company has sent more than 2 billion discs to its 10.6 million subscribers, who return them in the familiar red envelopes for more titles. (Think of Amazon.com but as a DVD-lending library instead of a bookstore.) Wall Street generally likes Netflix, whose Nasdaq stock price has more than doubled since last fall, and so does the public; the company has the No. 1 customer-satisfaction rating among online retailers. (Richard Corliss on how to improve the DVD giant...
...Howard Engle, 89, a doctor, continued to smoke despite being the lead plaintiff in a 1998 class action against tobacco companies. The trial ended with a $145 billion award--later voided--cementing the argument that manufacturers knowingly addicted smokers and failed to warn them about the dangers of lighting...
Chutzpah is the term that comes to mind when reading Israel Katz's response to President Obama's efforts to solve the West Bank--settlement issue. Israel accepted $2.4 billion in aid last year from U.S. taxpayers, yet the Katz family and fellow settlers tell us to "butt out." Californians could use that money to ease our budget crisis, and we know better than to bite the hand that feeds us--even when it's our money in the first place. Doris Concklin, CARMICHAEL, CALIF...