Word: lowering
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...peaceful coexistence, they still tend to form battle lines over the importance of the budget deficits. Some economists contend that the deficit is no longer a menace because it has shrunk from more than 6% of the gross national product in 1983 to about 3% right now. That is lower than the level of deficit spending during 1975-76, for example, when the gap was widened by a recession. Friedman says he accepts the deficit because it has restrained federal spending. "Sometimes you have to choose the lesser of two evils," he says. While Friedman admits that "mine...
...Information Program), are some unlikely fellow travelers. Among them: the American Petroleum Institute, which represents big oil companies, and Americans for Democratic Action, a left-wing organization that rates public office holders on their support for liberal issues. Both groups contend that a gas-tax increase would unfairly burden lower-income motorists because they spend a higher proportion of their income on fuel than better-off drivers do. The opponents are joined by state legislators, who fear that a higher federal levy would squeeze their ability to raise more revenues through their own gas taxes (national average: 15 cents...
...They are as different as water and fire," says a family friend. Seiji and Yoshiaki are the sons of the late Yasujiro Tsutsumi, a cantankerous millionaire who became speaker of the lower house of the Diet after making a fortune in railroads, hotels and department stores. Nicknamed "Pistol" for his buccaneering business methods, Yasujiro bought out impoverished aristocrats who could not pay inheritance taxes during the late '40s and early '50s, put up hotels on the newly acquired land and cockily called the hotel chain Prince. The 484-room Tokyo Prince, for example, is set on the former cemetery...
...winter of discontent is caused partly by the predictable functioning of the capitalist law of supply and demand. Soviet salaries have risen an average of roughly 8% over the past three years. Meanwhile, production of big-ticket consumer items like refrigerators and automobiles has been increasing at a much lower rate. As a result, says Yuri Luzhkov, chairman of the state committee responsible for Moscow's food supply, "people are investing their new money in food" -- and, in the process, creating the current spate of product shortages. Jan Vanous, research director of PlanEcon, a Washington-based think tank, agrees that...
...plan calls for deep budget cuts, lower wages and sharply higher prices for food, education and health care. At the same time the shekel has been devalued by 13%. The measures, approved by the Cabinet last week, drew acrimonious opposition from the Histadrut labor federation and Defense Minister Yitzhak Rabin. So vociferous was the army in protesting a proposed $193 million cut in the military budget that Peres ultimately agreed to trim only about $66 million...