Word: dismalness
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...special lameduck session of the 97th Congress seemed to be at once bogged down by cantankerous obstructionism and buffeted by legislative grandstanding. Efforts to pass overdue appropriations bills for the fiscal year that began last October (the ostensible reason for the special session) were a dismal failure. The attempt to pave the road to prosperity with a nickel-a-gallon gasoline tax was stalled by a renegade filibuster. Ronald Reagan and his congressional critics were still at swords' points over the MX missile, and no one dared even mention Social Security, a beast that some had foolishly dreamed...
Trying to downplay the White House's responsibility for such a dismal prospect, Feldstein and Treasury Secretary Donald Regan have argued repeatedly in recent weeks that the U.S. is plagued by a high rate of "structural unemployment," which cannot be cured by the Government's traditional pump-priming tactics of boosting spending or expanding the money supply. The term structural unemployment is a fuzzy concept that has been bandied about by economists for years, but has no clear-cut definition. Generally speaking, it refers to people out of work not as a result of a recession, but because...
...both the national and local press, residents accommodatingly repeated stories of good times past and a dismal present of losing jobs, families and homes. The initial round of news coverage, portraying Tent City as a virtual human metaphor for the effects of the recession, prompted a mammoth, warmhearted response from the Houston community. Everything from fresh fruit to live poultry began arriving. Says Howard Sandoz, a railroad inspector who brought over 12 lbs. of steak: "I saw the tent people on TV and thought about all the food I had. I'm just doing my part." Houston-area companies...
...Bluestone: "You are getting a dual economy. At one end you have relatively low-wage, highly unstable jobs in retail trades and service. And at the other end you are getting a not insignificant number of skilled, relatively high-wage, relatively secure jobs." Nevertheless, Massachusetts' rally from its dismal situation in the mid-'70s could serve as a future model for those areas blessed with a bit of brainpower and imagination...
Because of a third consecutive dismal harvest, the Soviets had to import 46 million tons of grain last year, or nearly 20% of their consumption, at a cost of $7 billion or more. At the same time, the sinking market price of oil, the chief Soviet export, cut earnings from energy sales. Result: a hard-currency deficit with the West of $4 billion. To help close that gap, the Soviets sold some 250 tons of gold in 1981 to raise about $3 billion...