Word: boosting
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Ronald Reagan never made any secret of his distaste for affirmative action -- the attempt to remedy past discrimination by giving preferential treatment to minorities. Last week, only days after Reagan left office, his goal of reining in such programs got a major boost from the Supreme Court. By a 6-to-3 vote, the court struck down a Richmond ordinance intended to guarantee blacks and other minorities a greater share of the city's construction contracts. The decision not only threatened similar programs in 36 states but also potentially opened the door to legal attacks against other racially based government...
...enrolled in an ESOP, up from 3 million only a decade ago. More than 9,800 companies in the U.S. offer such programs, including 1,500 in which employees own the majority of the stock. By giving workers a stake in the company's success, enthusiasts say, the programs boost morale and productivity. But the popularity of ESOPs, which were initially created in the 1950s, has been fueled in the 1980s by an unintended and somewhat controversial application: as a double-edged tool useful for both financing corporate takeovers and staving them...
...says Paul Mazzilli, a principal at the Morgan Stanley investment firm. In recent months, three major corporations -- J.C. Penney, Ralston Purina and Texaco -- spent a total of $1.75 billion on ESOPs to shore up their takeover defenses. Procter & Gamble announced plans in January to spend $1 billion to boost its ESOP from 14% of outstanding shares to 20%, partly to ward off raiders...
Tired of the rat race? Now comes a chance to revitalize yourself and a rural community at the same time. Residents of Minnesota's Koochiching County, whose biggest town is International Falls (pop. 10,000), are trying to boost their sagging population by giving away up to 40 acres to each brave soul who takes up residence there. To qualify, applicants must be financially self-sufficient and bring a business or a useful skill with them. The county has received 27 applications, four of which have been accepted...
Such new scenarios have arisen largely because real events so often confounded the old ones. Supply-siders, for instance, boasted that their policies would boost the U.S. savings rate and make Americans more productive. But, like the supply-side forecasts of smaller deficits, both promises failed to come true. The personal savings rate fell from 7.1% in 1980 to about 4% last year. At the same time, the growth of business productivity, or output per hour, averaged a meager 1.4% from 1980 to 1987, half the rate of the 1960s. Reason: the savings decline slowed investments in productive new equipment...