Word: europeanate
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...quiz: Which European country has the most liberal drug laws? (Hint: It's not the Netherlands...
Although its capital is notorious among stoners and college kids for marijuana haze-filled "coffee shops," Holland has never actually legalized cannabis - the Dutch simply don't enforce their laws against the shops. The correct answer is Portugal, which in 2001 became the first European country to officially abolish all criminal penalties for personal possession of drugs, including marijuana, cocaine, heroin and methamphetamine...
...where European and U.S. steel mills are cutting back on production, China seems to be expanding. Luxemburg-based ArcelorMittal, the world's biggest steelmaker, is slashing output by half, for instance. Yet state-supported Chinese steel companies are actually ramping up both capacity and output, according to Chinese government figures. The China Iron and Steel Association says that the production of crude steel has risen since December, from 1.2 million tons a day to 1.4 million. (China's annual excess production capacity is already about 100 million tons, more than the annual U.S. steel output...
...China's steelmakers employ some 2.5 million people, and Beijing is desperate to keep those jobs going. But U.S. and European rivals say China isn't playing fair and accuse Beijing of subsidizing steel companies, offering preferential tax rates, giving access to low-priced materials, and exempting steel firms from labor and environmental rules...
...European and U.S. steelmakers say those policies have artificially depressed steel prices and helped boost China's share of total E.U. steel imports from 2% in 2003 to 30% today and its share of U.S. imports from 4% in 2003 to 19% today. "The Chinese are in trouble and they must decide between allowing growth rates to fall - something that is politically very difficult - or annoying their trading partners by dumping their exports," says Paul Scott, managing consultant at London-based mining analysts CRU. "They are likely to choose the lesser of two evils, exporting their...