Word: dollars
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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Economist David Rosenberg, of investment firm Gluskin Sheff & Associates in Toronto, says Canada's trade deficit is the result of an overvalued loonie bumping up against a lingering downturn in U.S. consumer spending. "The Canadian dollar's overvaluation is a major impediment to the manufacturing sector," says Rosenberg, former chief economist at Merrill Lynch in New York City, noting that the loonie has overshot its real value by about...
...little swiftlet has hatched a billion-dollar global business, including a subindustry of how-to books and bloggers who share tips on birdhouse construction and equipment. As with most properties, the value of a birdhouse depends on three factors: location, location, location. Before building one, advises Kok, you must survey the skies for a regular passage of swiftlets. Once constructed - a three-story birdhouse with room for about 40,000 nests costs roughly $100,000 - you must attract tenants. The maker of the Swiftlet Bazooka Tweeter claims it can broadcast "love calls" to birds flying up to a mile away...
...industry that is murky and sometimes violent; in the past, only those with money, muscle and good political connections prospered. In Thailand, fewer than a dozen companies harvest nests from some 170 islands in the Gulf of Thailand and the Andaman Sea, in return for paying multimillion-dollar concession fees to the government. The remote islands are guarded by dozens of armed men - in effect private armies - and are often run "like independent states," says Jandam, the author of the industry study. Companies discourage all visitors, claiming they might disrupt the birds' habitat. In Koh Si Koh Ha, a string...
...companies struggle to keep afloat in an age of abundance, Anderson posits a provocative solution: give your wares away gratis. An idea "as powerful as it is misunderstood," Free has become a multibillion-dollar business model tailor-made for the Internet economy. As digital-infrastructure costs approach zero, Anderson argues that Free often pays off, whether it involves giving away cell phones to hawk monthly plans or embracing piracy to spark demand for merchandise. He also explains how charging even a penny can scramble consumer psychology and sketches a blueprint for competing with juggernauts, like Google, that have harnessed...
...well as cranking out wind-farm technicians and video-game designers - jobs that, despite ballooning unemployment overall, abound for adequately skilled workers. Community-college graduates earn up to 30% more than high school grads, a boon that helps state and local governments reap a 16% return on every dollar they invest in community colleges. But our failure to improve graduation rates at these schools is a big part of the achievement gap between the U.S. and other countries. As unfilled jobs continue to head overseas, Obama points to the "national-security implication" of the widening gap. Closing it, according...