Word: modeste
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...reason: demand is recovering, slightly, for some raw materials. In the case of oil, supplies have been reduced by OPEC cutbacks. And commodities traders are bidding up market prices in general on expectations that supply shortages will return with just a modest improvement in demand. That's because miners, farmers and oil drillers, hit by the credit crunch, can't finance investments that would increase their production capacity. Many won't invest today even if they have access to financing because depressed prices make projects uneconomic. The amount of investment in the oil sector, for example, will likely...
...does all that gel into a trend line? Well, it doesn't. The talk of economic 'green shoots' from a couple weeks ago seems to have pulled back. Now a lot of the talk is focused on a more-modest analogy involving first and second derivatives. Without getting too far into the scary Calculus stuff, the point is this: we may still be headed downhill but we're now headed a little bit slower. That seems like a sensible way to interpret what's going on. And perhaps even accurate...
...Mart and McDonald's are often criticized for selling "cheap" food and merchandise and treating their employees poorly by paying them very modest sums. There may be some truth in both charges but that true comes with another side to it. Many people who eat at McDonald's and shop at Wal-Mart are from the lower economic classes. McDonald's and Wal-Mart do not exploit that by selling these people junk. George Soros may not want to wear shoes from Wal-Mart and eat McDonald's hamburgers but that does not mean that both establishments have not helped...
...Charging people a dollar for a meal or for some modest item off a retail shelf may seem like a gimmick to pick up a penny a share for the next quarter. It is a good deal more than that. When a dollar is all that someone can spend, that person doesn't care if his purchase increases the company's earnings...
...down 38%, the sharpest drop since 1980, and there, too, optimists have found early signs of stabilization. It's not unreasonable to think that, sometime in the next few quarters or even months, business and housing will stop dragging the economy down and begin to provide at least a modest boost. (See pictures of retailers that have gone out of business...