Word: float
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...Friday morning the government of Prime Minister Edward Heath had had enough. Rather than continue using up its foreign currency reserves, it announced that it would let the pound temporarily "float"-that is, trade on international exchanges at any price set by supply and demand. That move in effect devalued the pound, and it quickly sank as low as $2.46 in New York City. The drop canceled two-thirds of the increase in the pound's dollar value, from $2.40 to $2.6057, that was agreed upon in Washington, D.C., in last December's realignment of currencies, called...
...gigantic U.S. balance of payments deficit, quickly came under attack. The West German Bundesbank had to buy almost $900 million in 90 frenzied minutes Friday morning before officials finally halted trading. In Switzerland, monetary authorities decided not to buy dollars to hold up the price, letting the dollar float down against the Swiss franc. As the situation worsened, French Finance Minister Valéry Giscard d'Estaing conferred with President Georges Pompidou and then announced that Common Market central bankers would meet in emergency session in Paris over the weekend to consider what...
Bowyer said that the cost of the second-stage project might be lowered by combining an underground garage with the related structure complex, thereby eliminating the need for piles altogether. Such a complex would "float" in the marshy subsoil, but would be limited in height to six or eight stories...
...Transportation Technology-Otis system uses six-to-ten-passenger Hovair vehicles that float on a cushion of air between them and a trackway. The blast of air that keeps the vehicles suspended is produced by electric engines, but the cars are pulled along by electromagnets that are embedded in a third rail in the track and controlled by a computer...
This year's extravaganza got under way with a parade down Lexington's main street with bands, floats and real live jackasses. George Wallace's float, naturally, was a yellow school bus loaded with his mock delegates toting serious placards: REDNECK POWER. Another realistic touch was a token mob riding in a Jeep bearing the sign: MOCK