Word: costs
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...Dubai debacle triggered immediate concern about a new wave of financial problems rippling through global markets. Stock-market indexes plummeted, the cost of insuring against a default by Dubai jumped and the dollar strengthened as investors rushed back into greenbacks. On Friday afternoon, stock markets made something of a recovery as analysts took a second look at what Dubai's proposed repayment halt means. Eighty billion dollars - Dubai's total liabilities - may sound like a lot of money but in the context of the past year, it's not huge. And while banks like HSBC and Barclays have billions...
...lure of cheap goods, though, is incredibly strong, even once we've reached the point of substantial creature comfort. In her book Cheap: The High Cost of Discount Culture, writer Ellen Ruppel Shell devotes the better part of two chapters to how inexpensive goods mess with our minds. She describes one experiment in which researchers used brain scans to show that the joy of a discounted item comes before it's bought; by the time a person is at home with his new thing, the luster is gone. On Black Friday, I watched shoppers on TV proudly state how much...
...that's the other big trade-off we make for low-priced goods-often cheap simply means cheap. Shell likes to tell the story of how she once bought three blenders in quick succession; the flimsy blades were no match for the ice that goes into smoothies. When "low cost" is the marketing trope we most respond to, quality easily falls by the wayside. And that state of affairs, Shell concludes based on the response to her book, bothers no one as much as the less affluent people who inexpensive goods are supposed to benefit the most. They...
...escalating cost in blood and treasure of a war that has already cost America $150 billion and has no clear end in sight is the reason Obama faces a tough sales job when he finally rolls out his Afghan strategy next week after nearly three months of debate. Following the President's anticipated speech to the nation, General Stanley McChrystal, the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, will testify before Congress along with other Obama national-security heavyweights. They'll have to convince skeptical Americans - as well as NATO allies at a Dec. 7 meeting - that Afghan President Hamid Karzai...
...sales job, at least in terms of cost, might be eased by Orszag's presence at that latest Situation Room session. "Wars have a way of crushing sound budgeting," says Gordon Adams, who handled the Office of Management and Budget's military account during the Clinton Administration. "It's a good idea to have the budget chief around when you decide to do that - especially if you have to sell it to a reluctant majority on the Hill...