Word: indexed
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...concept of boredom developed from being perceived as a moral failure in the 18th century, to an index of class arrogance and inadequate responsiveness to others in 19th century and finally to the universal motivating force it is seen as today. Specifically, Boswell and Johnson warned against the moral failing of dullness; Dickens blamed a morally bankrupt society for the boredom of some of its members and 19th-century women accepted the necessary tedium of their position and resigned themselves to needlepoint; we today think it our right to be entertained and are offended by boring people and things...
Leeson started buying and selling the simplest kind of derivatives, futures pegged to the Nikkei 225, an index of the value of 225 Japanese stocks that is Japan's equivalent of the Dow Jones Industrial Average. It was a straightforward process: in effect, Leeson placed open-ended bets on what would happen to billions of dollars worth of Japanese stocks and bonds. His wager was similar to what gamblers in Las Vegas betting on a football game call the over and under-meaning a bet on whether the final score of a football game will be above or below...
...late November or December, Leeson decided to wager that the Nikkei index would not drop below about 19,000 points on March 10, 1995. It seemed to be a safe bet: the Japanese economy was already rebounding after a 30-month recession. Using the account No. 88888 also had a special advantage, one that Leeson had probably learned about in his old back-office job in London when he made sure cash flowed into the right accounts. Both Osaka and Singapore demand prompt margin payments on contracts-that is, the difference between what the contracts were sold for and their...
Still, in December 1994 and early January 1995, the Nikkei 225 seemed headed for 19,000. On the morning of Jan. 17, 1995, however, an earthquake measuring 7.2 devastated the Japanese city of Kobe-and the erstwhile stable Nikkei index plummeted more than 7% in a week. Despite that, over the next three weeks Leeson bought thousands more contracts betting that the Nikkei would stabilize at 19,000. "He was going for the big kill," says the director of one trading house in Singapore. A Japanese trading executive remembers wondering what Barings was doing. "We figured that it is such...
...only your) bank, or knowing the corner shopkeeper well enough to cash a personal check. The ATM changed all that, using a fusion of computer chips, telepad, phone line and dispensing mechanism to transform the way people access their money. Armed with only a plastic card and a functioning index finger, a customer can now obtain cash as easily in Tierra del Fuego as in downtown Tulsa...