Word: default
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...Bonds, on the other hand, represent a promise from a company or government or other borrower to pay you back, with interest. When you buy a bond, you're making a loan. Sometimes bond issuers (a.k.a. borrowers) renege on their promises. The financial crisis originated with a rash of defaults on subprime mortgages that had been packaged into bonds. But the bond risks that vex Atteberry have little to do with that default risk - Uncle Sam will make the payments. The worry is over rising interest rates. (See pictures of retailers which have gone out of business...
...European Union released a set of guidelines for manufacturers on Sept. 29 that will lower the default maximum-volume level on iPods and other portable music devices within the next two years. For some, this is nothing new - France already caps the decibel level on portable music players sold in the country at 100. But some devices are able to play as high as 120 decibels - a noise level equivalent to that generated by an airplane takeoff. So why is the E.U., like your nosy next-door neighbor, trying to force you turn down that racket? (See the 100 best...
...will only mandate a default maximum-volume level - users are still able to go in and tweak the settings to rock out as loud as they want. Because of this, both Levey and Grimes say the more effective approach to the issue may be educating listeners about the problems that can arise. As president of the American Academy of Audiology, Grimes helped start an initiative called Turn It to the Left, which was aimed at informing people about the dangers of prolonged exposures to loud noise. And Levey says that during her study, talking to people about the risks...
...militaries in other countries may look at the U.S.'s Honduras ruling and decide coups are worth chancing as long as they don't install a guy wearing epaulettes in the president's chair. In that scenario, a full-bore U.S. aid cut-off won't kick in by default - and there's always the possibility, they'll reason, that the White House won't adopt enough punitive steps to make them cry uncle...
Still, an AIG default could have been catastrophic for Goldman, although Goldman claims to have been perfectly hedged against an AIG bankruptcy. "If AIG would have gone bankrupt, it would have affected every institution in the world, because it would have had a big effect on the entire financial system," explains David Viniar, Goldman's CFO. He countered, though, that Goldman would have most likely figured out how to make money trading in such a volatile environment. (See TIME's AIG cover...