Word: indexed
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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Inflation has dealt a harder blow to South America than to any other region in the world. Of the 86 nations in the U.N.'s global cost-of-living index, Bolivia is in first place. Chile is second, Brazil and Argentina rank high. "A fire burning down our house," Bolivia's President Hernan Siles Zuazo calls inflation. "We will be lucky...
...expected to decline some 5%, and corporate profits will be lower: some $41 billion before taxes, or about 3% less than 1957. But gross national product will stay level at this year's record $439 billion, and industrial production, as measured by the Federal Reserve's index, will only slip 1.5% or 2%, a barely noticeable drop compared to the 5% or 6% decline the U.S. experienced during the so-called 1954 recession. Unemployment will also increase, yet only by 400,000 to a total of 3,200,000, once again well below...
...their resurgent economy: Jimmu kieki-the biggest boom since the days of the legendary Emperor Jimmu, who founded the Japanese empire in 660 B.C. In five years the gross national product zoomed 62.5% to $25 billion annually, while industrial production jumped almost 100% to 219 on the 1934-36 index. But last week Japan had two somewhat more sober phrases to quote: naka-darumi, meaning pause, and oi-uchi, meaning a tightening. The pause in the boom had been brought about by the credit pinching of Finance Minister Hisato Ichimada to keep inflation from toppling the boom...
Even on the narrow issue of measuring prices, the index is vulnerable. Food costs make up 30.1% of the market basket, but BLS does not check food stores on weekends, when most stores run their big sales and do most of their selling. BLS prices appliances in department stores, but not in discount houses, contends that discount prices are not really savings because they do not include delivery or service, although many discount houses now provide both. It asks auto dealers for an estimated selling price, does not check the deals that hard-bargaining buyers actually...
Despite the index's flaws, the Bureau of Labor Statistics gets little support from Congress in trying to improve it. Only this year BLS tried to resume spot checks in several cities on actual consumer expenditures to see how representative its market basket is. But Congress refused to appropriate the trifling $115,000 needed. Doing his best with the tools Congress allows him, Commissioner Clague is considering asking Congress for funds to revise the index completely. Many economists believe that such an expenditure would be justified, so that BLS can find out exactly how U.S. families spend their money...