Word: mid
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...something funny happened as the Europeans smugly watched the American behemoth stumble: the not-so-almighty dollar began to rise. Since mid-July the greenback has gained more than 16% against the euro. And why? Because for all its troubles, the U.S. still looks like a safer and ultimately more profitable haven than Europe, with its irreducible jobless rate of about 8%, or those trendy emerging markets that have now crashed back to earth. You would have thought the U.S. would be hemorrhaging trillions by now; instead the rest of the world is learning to love its currency again...
There may also be political reasons for this unexpected turn. When the crisis intensified in mid-September, Washington acted quickly. There was a Treasury Secretary to devise and present a rescue plan, and a Congress - after an initial case of the vapors - to act on it. But there is no Hank Paulson in Europe, nor a precise counterpart to Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke. Jean-Claude Trichet heads the European Central Bank, but it cannot play the lender of last resort, as the Fed did on Sept. 16 by loaning $85 billion to prop up the U.S. insurance giant...
...Alternative Investment Market (AIM) is a good example of how London got so big in the first place, and how it's starting to pay the price. Launched in the mid-'90s as part of the London Stock Exchange, this market for small companies deliberately set out to cut the paperwork for listing firms to an absolute minimum. There's no need, say, for bulky official prospectuses before a stock is listed on AIM, and the market is overseen not by official regulators but by brokerage firms called "nomads," which are responsible for the new issues. For years...
...Winehouse era, the British exported their music, not their dirty laundry, which is why it's possible for Americans to recall the mid-'90s moment when Oasis and Blur jostled for the title of rock's best band in complete ignorance of the fact that the groups genuinely loathed each other. The divisive issues were class and ambition: Oasis' Noel and Liam Gallagher boasted that they had neither, while the members of Blur were posh college kids who briefly went by the band name Seymour, after J.D. Salinger's suicidal genius. Blur's music had oblique melodies and omnivorous influences...
...Still, the local art world isnt' getting too depressed - yet. Says Bashat, the director of the Opera Gallery Hong Kong, "Many buyers see art as a safer investment in the mid to long term compared to other investments in the market." Buyers may be turning away from contemporary Chinese art today, but at least they are keeping an eye on Asia...