Word: downward
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 2000-2009
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Resisting of Cassandra Creep For weeks, Obama has reminded the nation of the fix it's in. He has spoken of the risk of downward "spiral," deepening "crises," potential economic "catastrophe" and the "big challenge" ahead. At the time, such language served a political purpose: to direct public pressure toward Congress to pass the stimulus, while making clear that the problems were inherited. But too much grim talk runs the risk of becoming self-fulfilling. As White House economists will explain, the worst fears of an economic spiral involve a self-perpetuating collapse in consumer confidence that leads...
...stretch out on the flight, even in coach. The malls have that serene aura of undisturbed wilderness, with scarcely a shopper in sight. Every conversation with anyone selling anything is a pantomime of pain and bluff. Finger the scarf, then start to walk away, and its price floats silkily downward. When the mechanic calls to tell you that brakes and a timing belt and other services will run close to $2,000, it's time to break out the newly perfected art of the considered pause. You really don't even have to say anything pitiful before he'll offer...
...Dubai tennis tiff could very well be just the beginning of a serious downward spiral in diplomatic relations between Israel and the rest of the Middle East. After years of gradually easing tensions following the Camp David accords, Israel's relations with even moderate Arab countries have become increasingly brittle since the Gaza conflict and could easily worsen. (See pictures of Gaza border tension...
...According to national data from 1997 to 2007, the overall rate of MRSA infections among some of the most vulnerable patients in a hospital - those in the intensive-care unit (ICU) - dropped by nearly 50%. That downward trend was true of all bloodstream infections among ICU patients, including infections with strains of staph that can be controlled with antibiotics, reports Dr. Deron Burton, a lieutenant commander in the U.S. Public Health Service at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), in a study in the Feb. 18 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association. (See the most...
...sure it worked "with the grain" of E.U. rules and maintained the integrity of the single market. "Some think that retrenching within their own group, their own region, their own country is the right response," he said. "But this carries the risk of unilateral reactions leading to a vicious downward spiral...