Word: drops
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...Mail deliveries, like hemlines, always drop in economic downturns. But the current pinch is worse than usual. One reason: the housing and financial sectors were once gold-star postal customers, but since their cash flows have slowed to a trickle, their direct-mail marketing campaigns have all but dried up. Mortgage direct mailings declined 57% from the first quarter of 2007 to the first quarter of 2008, according to the Chicago-based mail and advertising tracker Mintel Comperemedia. And credit card offers by mail sagged 28% from the third quarter of 2007 to the third quarter of 2008, dropping...
...Postal Service had already been limping along, taking heat on several fronts. One of its biggest threats is e-mail, which has made the art of letter-writing seem downright quaint and last year contributed to a nearly 10% drop in first-class mail (that's individual letters to you and me), the worst loss in any mail category. Demand for deliveries has been further beaten down by environmentalists, who consider snail mail a waste of paper. Meanwhile, spikes in oil prices in 2008 drove operating costs for the Postal Service's fleet - which is 220,000 vehicles strong - through...
...more: Kinsley argues that last summer's high oil prices were essentially a tax on consumers; the money just went to oil companies instead of the government. But he forgets that oil companies do not have control over their prices. If they did, then why would oil prices ever drop? Kinsley's logic does not follow. Ryan Young and Drew Tidwell, Competitive Enterprise Institute, WASHINGTON...
...wood): Wall Street and Detroit, AIG and WaMu, Chrysler and Bernie Madoff. But the state has its problems, from layoffs by major employers to falling grain prices, bankrupt ethanol plants and state budget woes. And some of those recent scary national headlines - "U.S. Loses 533,000 Jobs in Biggest Drop Since 1974," "Recession Propels Skid in Housing Sales, Prices," "Retail Sales Are Weakest in 35 Years," "In Need of Cash, More Companies Cut 401(k) Match" - are translating into tangible, tell-tale signs on the street where I live. (See Obama's agenda for getting the U.S. back on track...
...criticized the choice of Panetta, claiming the CIA needs to be led by an experienced intelligence professional. But right now, political clout and the ability to be a strong advocate for the CIA far outweigh the virtues of being a professional spy and knowing the difference between a "live drop" and a "dead drop." A professional from the ranks would be eaten up by Hillary Clinton at State or Bob Gates at Defense. Or he or she would end up like Bill Clinton's CIA director, Jim Woolsey, who was shut out of the White House, ignored, and became irrelevant...