Word: evens
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...certain extent, mounting sovereign debt is a natural outcome of the recent recession. As in any downturn, tax revenues shrank but government spending increased to stimulate sagging economies. The result: budget deficits and more borrowing. Expensive banking-sector bailouts made the burden even heavier. That's not automatically dangerous. There is no particular level of debt that acts as a trip wire and tosses an economy into crisis. Different economies can bear different levels of government debt, depending on their ability - real or perceived - to finance it. While Greece's small and uncompetitive economy is struggling to stay afloat, Japan...
...That help has a price. European ministers are insisting that Greece implement a severe austerity plan to quickly reduce its fiscal deficit. Papandreou has already promised pay cuts for public employees and tax hikes, but his European counterparts are demanding an even stricter program. That presents a huge test to his regime. Government workers have already staged strikes to protest Papandreou's plans. So far, he's held firm. A recent poll showed that two-thirds of Greeks believe the Prime Minister's measures are necessary; only 41% think they go far enough. "The government has seen the problem...
...During Mao Zedong's time they were considered a pest and extermination campaigns were launched against them. Also taking a toll were loss of habitat, declining prey numbers and, as the economy took off, growing demand from traditional Chinese medicine for every part of the animal: whiskers, penis, bone, even feces...
...Swaptree, Zwaggle and Craigslist, where, for example, a user in Memphis, Tenn., is looking to trade a new pair of boots for a kitchen faucet. But there's a complication to all this happy swapping: the IRS views bartered goods and services as reportable income. The agency has even set up the Bartering Tax Center. So does everyone need to report every little swap? "There are no tax implications for the type of bartering happening on our site," says Carl Schwartz of Swaptree, which trades only books, CDs, video games and DVDs. The rule of thumb, according...
...Ethiopia is Eritrea's archenemy.) But that support is small compared with the assistance that extremist groups in Pakistan and Afghanistan have received from radical Islamists around the world. Finally, the risk that Somalia could ignite a wider conflagration across the Horn of Africa - sucking in Ethiopia, Eritrea and even Kenya - is real but, again, nothing like the one in Afghanistan's neighborhood. As U.S. ambassador to Kenya Michael Ranneberger never tires of pointing out, none of Somalia's neighbors are nuclear powers. "We are a little wary of the comparisons," he says...