Word: dire
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...news from China in recent weeks has been dire. Strikes and protests - some of them violent and involving as many as ten thousand people - are reported almost daily. Millions of workers are being thrown out of their jobs, and economic indicators seem to presage more gloom, with electricity production for industry falling 4% in October, the first time it has declined in a decade. Even the country's seemingly insatiable thirst for oil to fuel its decades' long boom seems to be fading: China's national oil company said late in November that demand had declined "sharply" in recent months...
...Kicking the can down the road, however, isn't the kind of clarity Wall Street is looking for in these dire economic times. Coming a day after the Big Three CEOs' pleas on Capitol Hill dragged down the markets, Congress's muddled maneuvers on Thursday only made investors more anxious, pushing the Dow Jones down another 400-plus points and the broader S&P 500 index to an 11-year low. (See the Top 10 Dow Jones drops...
...based political analyst John Makumbe told TIME that the MDC still hopes to force more concessions out of Zanu-PF as the price for joining a government. Unless a government that includes the MDC can be formed in the next few months, most experts agree, Zimbabwe's future looks dire. Without the MDC, "Mugabe won't be able to change anything to avoid disaster," says Sisulu. "He will have to keep ruling through violence." And while he has proved all too willing to unleash his security forces on opposition supporters, at some point the economic collapse could begin...
...Americans watch the financial markets crash and burn, it is essential not to allow the rest of the world around us to do so as well, but the state of our nation’s transportation infrastructure is getting to be so dire that immediate attention is crucial...
...everyone believes the situation is so dire or that the Democrats' efforts are so pure. Some observers speculate that GM, the weakest of the Big Three, can likely hold out until January. Still others say that even if GM doesn't make it, the fallout might not be all bad for the Democrats, who can blame the GOP for inaction without having to put more taxpayer money on the line. "If there's a bankruptcy between now and then, the spin would be that the Republicans let it happen," says Greg Valliere, chief political strategist at the Stanford Financial Group...