Word: float
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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Since early 1973, the world's major currencies have been "floating"-that is, how many U.S. dollars or Japanese yen a German mark, say, can buy has been determined by the forces of supply and demand in foreign exchange markets and not, as in the past, by government fiat. The system seemed to work well for a while. Now, however, a growing number of Europeans are concluding that floating rates have been a failure. The harshest critic has been France, which last week ceased to allow the franc to float freely against all other money. Instead, it will rejoin...
Many policymakers and bankers in Europe are assailing floating rates partly on the argument that they have not, as promised, ended speculative swings in world currency markets. Instead, currency fluctuations have intensified (see chart) and losses as the result of miscalculations have grown larger. Banks such as Banque de Bruxelles, Lloyds, the Union Bank of Switzerland and the now defunct Franklin National in the U.S. lost heavily last year by guessing wrong about which way-or how far -rates would float. So did some corporations that have tried to hedge against fluctuations by contracting to buy and sell currencies...
Another criticism is that floating rates have not helped to solve international trade problems. Britain, for example, continues to run huge deficits despite a downward float of the pound. Its woes underscore perhaps the most basic charge against floating rates: that they encourage nations to spend more than they earn, in the false hope that a cheaper currency will correct major economic weaknesses by encouraging exports and holding down imports. In reality, says University of Chicago Economist Arthur Laffer, currency fluctuations "never solve fundamental problems...
...occasional gem of a character and a few priceless one-liners, but thrown in with the prices of admission are the things that make the twenties musical one of the crown jewels of the American theater--songs and dances that transcend the plot breathe life into the characters, and float the audience into a dream world where anything is believable if you want...
...been found in shark entrails. The biblical Jonah was there too, today's marine scientists theorize. Sharks are condemned by nature to a life without sleep or even rest. The reason is that they lack the swim bladders of the bony fishes, which permit the latter to float when they need to. A shark must literally swim or sink. If you wanted to anthropomorphize the beast, you could account for its wretched disposition by that fact alone...