Word: high
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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Precious stones are also being snatched up, though unwary investors can lose disastrously. In the past year, high-grade "investment diamonds" of one carat or more have risen 45% in value and now often sell for $31,000 per stone. But smaller and flawed gems, which are normally sold only for jewelry to hide the imperfections, may be poor buys; four quarter-carat, lesser-quality stones are usually worth much less than a single good-quality, one-carat stone...
...drive subcompact code-named Erika by next fall. In the meantime it has just completed a costly effort to downsize its big gas-gulping Lincoln Mark VIs, Cougar XR-7s and Thunderbirds for the 1980 model year and to boost its fleet average fuel economy 13% to an industry high of 21.6 m.p.g. But for a while, Ford's only real strong points will be its overseas operations and its brisk truck business...
...kind of raises required to keep all their staffers fully abreast of 13%-plus inflation. Because taxes absorb part of any increase, a firm seeking just to keep "whole" an employee earning $15,000 or more must boost his pay by 16% to 19% this year alone. If high inflation persists, further raises would be necessary in subsequent years. Yet a company that gave increases of this size would not only be violating the Administration's 7% pay guideline but might also risk cleaning out its treasury...
...performers who merit higher-than-average increases. In a period of nominal inflation, for example, a firm could afford to reward its superstars with raises of 12% or so because the average clock watcher would need to be given only, say, 2%. But with living costs soaring, pressures are high to grant underachievers heftier raises at the expense of the overachievers, so that many people wind up with increases in the 6% to 8% range. Laments Bruce Ellig, a compensation specialist at Pfizer Inc., the pharmaceutical firm: "The result is to reward mediocrity and stifle the encouragement of improved performance...
...will China pay for these expensive wares? One high-ranking economist dangled before the visitors the still largely untouched prospects in China's good earth. Besides oil and coal, China's natural wealth includes iron, manganese, tungsten, antimony, tin, copper, lead, zinc, mercury, molybdenum and aluminum. Said he: "Remember, it takes four or five tons of titanium to make a single Boeing 747, and we are also rich...