Word: importancies
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...means. For three decades the government rolled over its debts from one year to the next, confident that the steadily rising price for coffee, which accounts for one-third of its trade, would bail it out. But gradually, even as it continued to launch more public-works projects and import more luxury goods, Costa Rica got snared in the same dilemma that is afflicting countries throughout the Third World: the price of its exports dwindled, while those of its imports soared. In 1977 an 85-lb. sack of coffee produced enough foreign exchange to buy 13 bbl. of oil; today...
Most economists in San José agree that Carazo, after his inauguration in 1978, unwittingly made everything worse. A politician who craved to be liked, he failed to devalue the colón and establish strict import controls. He continued to subsidize the prices of gasoline, food and imported luxury items. When he could not borrow any more, he printed additional money to pay government employees and avoid unemployment...
...grounds that they had not legally "abandoned" it. Original owners who had received insurance payments could then try to buy back their jewels from the insurers. Even if sued, Gimbel could still get up to 50% of the salvage, depending on the courts. He will have to pay import duties on everything except currency and antiques. "This was not a treasure hunt," insists Gimbel, who was welcomed at the dock by U.S. Customs agents. Will he go down to the Andrea Doria again? No, says he. "I think it is time to stop testing myself...
...cope, some institutions have had to import nurses from the Philippines, the United Kingdom and Canada. By next year, 20% of the 5,600 nurses in New York's municipal hospitals will be Filipino. And still the city will be short 1,000 nurses. Many more use temporary nursing employment agencies that have proliferated, particularly in California, where the nurse shortage is acute. Some Southern California hospitals rely on such agencies for as much as 60% of their staff, but the solution is hardly ideal. Agency fees can cost a hospital millions of dollars each year. Staff morale suffers...
Hydro power is not about to free the U.S., or even New England, from its dependence on either nuclear power or imported oil. Less than 5% of the region's electrical power now comes from hydroelectric sites. The New England River Basins Commission has made an inventory of the 10,000 dam sites in the region's six states and concluded that only 320 of the dams are now economically feasible. If those were developed, water-energy production would rise to only about 7% of daily usage. But even that amount would mean that the U.S. could import...