Word: chronic
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Harold Understands. One reason for the continuing trade problems has been the failure of past governments to curb Britain's chronic wildcat walkouts, of which the dock strike is an outstanding example. British dockers already take home an average $84 a week, so hopes of a peaceful settlement were high early on, when union leaders endorsed management offers of a 4% to 7% increase. Those hopes crumbled, however, when rank-and-file insurgents, demanding pay increases closer to 80%, rejected the package and led dockers off the piers. Jack Jones, head of the 1,500,000-member Transport...
...Administration officials fear that friendly governments might even be angered enough to begin redeeming for U.S. gold the dollars that they now hold. Such a move could shake the world monetary system because the U.S. does not have anywhere near enough gold to buy back all the dollars that chronic balance of payments deficits have deposited abroad. The economic isolationism and trade wars of 40 years ago prolonged and deepened the world Depression of the 1930s; the post-World War II move toward free trade has been a mighty engine of global prosperity. Abandonment of that progress for the sake...
When a country of considerable scenic beauty is plagued by a chronic shortage of foreign exchange funds, the standard solution is to build a few luxury hotels, print some brochures advertising the virgin beaches and rugged mountains, and brace for the flood of tourists. Leave it to Albania to invent a new wrinkle that is absolutely guaranteed to keep the tourists away in droves...
...more than a symbolic response to crime. Police can do little to prevent the creation of criminals. The dark reservoirs of anger and disappointment besetting the nation inevitably erupt into violence; a society flush with consumer goods multiplies crime incentives and opportunities. In short, crime has taken on a chronic quality that seems beyond the power of the present police system to change...
...annual rate of 0.6%. With wages and fringe benefits climbing by 7.7% an hour, labor costs per unit of output rose at an annual rate of 8.4% -the worst performance in 14 years. Companies naturally felt a strong compulsion to raise prices. If the productivity problem becomes chronic, it will in time damage the nation's globally envied standard of living...