Word: dismall
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...Earnings gains may make for good financial headlines but they don't necessarily reflect the growth of the underlying business. Indeed, most companies have just wrapped up a year of dismal quarterly results where many slashed jobs and other expenses to weather the debilitating recession and frozen credit markets. Thus, the near-term earnings may look much improved even though demand for a company's products may have slumped. "Cost-cutting has been the major force driving earnings and earnings surprises," says Dirk Van Dijk, chief equity strategist at Zacks Investment Research, which monitors earnings projections from Wall Street analysts...
...German Chancellor Angela Merkel, the new year has gotten off to a dismal start. During the past week, several members of her party, the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), have publicly laid into her laissez-faire leadership style, claiming it has weakened the conservative party's base. And Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle, leader of the CDU's partner in government, the Free Democratic Party (FDP), has challenged her government's stances on key foreign policy issues, namely German troop levels in Afghanistan and Turkey's long-delayed bid to join the European Union...
...outsourcing giants are aggressively expanding beyond their usual stomping grounds into the developing world, setting up programming centers, chasing new clients and hiring local talent from Santiago in Chile to China's far-west metropolis of Chengdu. Through geographic diversification, Indian companies hope to regain some momentum after a dismal year, at the same time becoming even tougher competitors to IBM, Accenture and other industry leaders. India's companies "clearly realize that if we want to be global players, we need a presence in emerging markets," says Sangeeta Gupta, vice president of India's National Association of Software and Service...
...surprise twin retirements announced this week by Democratic Senators Chris Dodd of Connecticut and Byron Dorgan of North Dakota cap a dismal month for Democrats. Early in December, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi moved to stem the tide of lower-chamber retirements after four veteran moderate, so-called Blue Dogs announced that they would not run for re-election. Then, instead of a retirement, another Blue Dog - this time Alabama freshman Parker Griffith - jumped ship to the Republican Party. Only a year after celebrating an expected six GOP Senate retirements in 2010 and nearly a dozen in the House (that number...
...generic verve; that's the best that can be said about the movie's CGI animation. (As in G-Force, the animated rodents interact with the live-action humans.) But when it talks, or tries to develop a situation, Alvin 2 relies on shtick that sinks below even the dismal standards of high school comedies and buddy farces. Pain is the key here: the movie has more gags that involve hitting, hurting and humiliating than you'll find in an entire Super Bowl's worth of commercials...