Word: less
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Like the rest of America, politicians in Washington seemed less likely to change their behavior patterns as memories of Black Monday drifted away. When congressional and Administration leaders opened their second week of emergency budget-cutting meetings last week, their post-crash burst of bipartisan magnanimity was on the wane. "The worst thing for the summit is stock-market stability. It takes the pressure off," says Economist Schultze...
Those who watched the Iran and Bork hearings were reminded of how inadequate a capsule summary can be if you've seen the movie. Less familiar committee members -- Inouye, Hamilton, Mitchell, Specter, Simpson -- appealed just because their humanity hadn't vanished behind a professional veneer. They were earnest, perhaps a little verbose, sometimes eloquent, decidedly human, and a welcome change from the usual Washington sound-bite sophisticate...
Those who still believe in the slogans see their faith tested daily. By every economic measure imaginable, the country has become considerably poorer since 1979. The purchasing power of the average person with a job has declined to less than 20% of what it was in 1980. Food and fuel are tightly rationed. A few weeks ago the gas allowance, obtained with coupons bearing a portrait of Che Guevara, was cut from 20 to 17 gal. a month. Earlier this year, the government-subsidized rice ration was reduced to 1 lb. a person a month, down from 5 lbs. three...
...centralized economy modeled after the Soviet system. Though Managua controls only 40% of the economy, prices and wages in the private sector are also set by the Sandinistas. The Soviet Union has underwritten most of the direct costs of the war against the contras, but it has been less willing to fill what might be called the Micawber Gap, the expanding gulf between income and expenditure. Exports have fallen from $636 million in 1977 to an estimated $230 million this year. Imports have remained fairly constant at about $750 million a year. One result of the trade imbalance: Nicaragua...
...several ways. The most accurate and expensive method ($40 to $100 a test) is hydrostatic weighing, also known as the water- buoyancy test, in which a person sits on a special scale and is dunked into a vat of water. Because fat is lighter than water, a person weighs less underwater. The land and submerged weights are used to calculate body fat. Another method, called electrical-impedance testing, is based on the fact that fat content affects how well the body conducts electricity. Electrodes are attached to hands and feet, and a small current is applied briefly. Readings measure...