Word: boom
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...Crisis in the Middle East strained and stretched (but did not break) the historic alliance with Britain and France, even while crisis in Poland and Hungary demonstrated to the world anew the weaknesses (and the constant threat) of that long-standing cold-war antagonist, the Soviet Union. Economically, the boom kept booming, but now there were complaints about inflation on the one hand and "tight money" on the other. In Montgomery, Ala., Negroes and whites rode together on buses-at least in the daytime and signaled the passing of an old way of life...
...played as if in a frenzy, the drums pound-pounding a terrible tom-tom, the saxophones moaning and wailing, the violins singing sensuously, shrilly as if in pain, an exquisite, searing pain . . . Close-packed the couples moved slowly about the gymnasium, body pressed tight to body, swaying in place-boom, boom, boom, boom...
...rising prices. The cost of living, stable for three years, edged up 2.4% to 117.8 on the 1947-49 index. Some of the rise was due to higher food prices, which meant that the U.S. farmer, who often complains that he has been the forgotten man of the boom, was finally coming out of his slump. Thanks to increased consumption and an $8.5 billion Government investment in price-support and soil-bank aid, farm income showed a 4% rise, the first upswing in four years. Yet few consumers felt a real pinch. Workers' paychecks jumped 4% for the year...
...passed a major milestone. For the first time since the big arms buildup of Korea, peacetime capital outlays passed military spending, despite an arms budget of $36 billion in 1956. It was a final answer to foreign critics such as Australian Economist Colin Clark, who had called the U.S. boom a depression-prone economy, propped up only by armament spending...
...there is no alternative." Though dividends were up slightly to $12 billion v. $11.2 billion in 1955, they were still only 60% of profits compared to the 75% that corporations consider the normal payout to stockholders. As one result, Wall Street's bull market did not reflect the boom. It climbed to a high of 521.05 on the Dow-Jones industrial average in April, then slipped back 50 points, and at year's end was just about where it started...