Word: importance
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While everyone in Washington is worried about Grenada's exporting revolution, the island is having enough problems trying to import it. English may still be the first language of the island, but it often comes off second best when it comes to translating socialist slogans. The revolution communicates by billboard in the way that Californians do by bumper sticker, posting its noble but often mind-numbing reminders at almost every road turning and intersection: THE LAND IS OUR WEALTH, EDUCATION IS OUR LIBERATION, WORK HARDER, GROW MORE FOOD, BUILD THE REVOLUTION. With equal alacrity, the Grenadians have adeptly copied...
...made him a millionaire several times over. The walk to riches began last November, when Hakuta's parents in Tokyo sent several of the widgets to his 3½-year-old son Kenzo, in Washington. Entrepreneur Hakuta, who has an M.B.A. from Harvard and runs a Washington-based import-export firm called Tradex, was immediately smitten with the toy and arranged to have it shipped to the U.S. He says: "I figured it might be something that could put humor into this recession." (Tradex, which has its headquarters in Hakuta's house, had previously been engaged...
...Christmas, WallWalker put fun into a lot of kids' stockings and profits into Hakuta's account. The toy, called Tako (for octopus) in Japan, costs about 20? to make. Hakuta buys them for 30? to 35? each, packages and airfreights them to the U.S., pays the import duty (12.3%) and sells to wholesalers or retail stores for between 70? and 80?. Thus he averages a 40? profit on each toy. So far, Hakuta has spent nothing on advertising or promotion. "It just goes to show you don't have to be a big company like Mattel...
...book is devoted to the negotiations with the IMF and to Manley's caustic assessment of the organization. He contends that IMF conditions for aid, which include an austerity program, impose unbearable hardships on the receiving country, cutting wages and increasing unemployment. At one critical point Manley had to import either food to feed the starving or raw materials to avert economic collapse. The IMF, he concludes, is totally unresponsive to the needs of the Third World...
...sales of Japanese-made cars were 1.8 million last year, and are not increasing, thanks to Tokyo's recent acceptance of a third year of "voluntary" import restrictions. Although Detroit is at last beginning to approach the Japanese on quality, evidence suggests that an extra twelve months will enable U.S. carmakers to become significantly more competitive on price. After ten years of mostly futile trying, Detroit continues to watch the small-car market slip away to the Japanese, who are now training their sights on the midsize and luxury end of the market as well...