Word: focusing
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...dumb mammals, powerless in the presence of cheap stimulants (Salt! Sugar! Fats!). The arguments we use to justify our dependence on them are callow and banal - why, for example, is eating healthily equated with being "boring," when nothing could be more boring than being dead? Why do we obsessively focus on the one-in-a-million 90-year-olds who survive against all odds, and ignore the countless multitudes who have had their lives radically foreshortened because of cancer related to drinking, smoking or obesity? Why do we utter banalities like "life is for living," even as we pay good...
Zornow’s pending graduation in June, however, will complicate practices and performances with Awkward Landing. But even if he does leave the group—which he says is unlikely—music will undoubtedly continue to be the major focus of his life...
...primary focus of U.S. attention today is China, whose economy continues to grow apace and attracts huge amounts of foreign direct investment--an eye-popping $53.5 billion last year. For months now, American economists and politicians have been fretting publicly over whether China is overheating, whether it is the next Asian meltdown-in-waiting and how long its currency can remain so blatantly undervalued against the dollar...
Fang had a different perspective. The exchange rate "has served China very well, and we don't want to change voluntarily," he said, although none of the board ruled out the possibility that the country could eventually yield to U.S. pressure. But "it's wrong to focus so much energy on the exchange rate," Fang argued, noting that even a 5% movement wouldn't do much to help plug the U.S. trade deficit. It would be far smarter to address concerns like China's uncompetitive service sector--allowing foreign banks to set up shop, for example. "China can open...
...French economist, like Fang, warned against excessive focus on currency. Governments, particularly in France and Germany, need to continue reforming their economies to boost productivity, reduce the relatively high cost of labor and find better investment uses for a huge pool of savings that is sitting in bank accounts that yield very low returns. France's savings rate is higher even than Japan's. "The strength of the euro highlights European structural problems; it doesn't cause them," Blanque said...