Word: emperor
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1980-1989
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
After two years, few visible signs of the recovery emerged. But the swindlers kept on working, and hardly anyone spoke out of fear of the repurcussions. At the mid-term elections, the emperor suffered relatively few losses, maintaining the upper hand in the Senate. So the swindlers asked for more leverage--larger tax cuts, tighter money supply. The emperor complied...
Soon, it came time for the emperor to decide whether he wanted to rule for four more years--a decision based largely on whether the recovery would continue well into the crucial election year. A few weeks before Labor day--the date he set for announcing his intentions--he went to see the recovery himself. The newest figures showed that unemployment was at 9.3 percent, considerably lower than the 10.8 percent the year before, but still higher than at any time since the Great Depression. Poverty was more widespread than ever in 15 years. Inflation was down, but only until...
...large city where the emperor's palace lay, hundreds of thousands of experts and consultants lived and worked. Although they all had suggestions, they were brushed aside as "time-worn," "interventionist," or "Keynesian." One day, some swindlers arrived. They said that the plague stemmed from the sins of policymakers over the past two score and 10 years. People relied too much on government, lacking enough faith in the free market. The newcomers told everybody that they were economists, with solutions that could bring about a tremendous recovery--not the recoveries of late, where high growth came only with high inflation...
...Well," the emperor said to himself in his gravelly voice, cocking his head to the right, "this is indeed a fortunate find. Not only can I garner re-election and possibly a majority in both houses, but I can say truthfully that those darned perpetually critical Democrats are, why, unforgivably stupid." He gave the swindlers all they asked for--the food stamp program, hot lunches for school children, and large chunks of medicare, medicaid, welfare, and student...
After a while, the emperor wanted a progress report. He sent his ambitious, young director of the Office of Management and Budget, whom he considered both clever and extremely fit for his job. The aide went to the economy room to see how things were going. He was taken aback. He rubbed his eyes and wiped his glasses. Seeing the largest vat of red ink in federal history, he gulped "none of us really understands what's going with these numbers." As he staggered back, he wondered "do you realize the greed coming to the forefront? The hogs are really...