Word: nearly
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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When the Big Three Swiss banks finally announced the Holocaust Memorial Fund on Feb. 5, reaction in the U.S. was tepid. "It's an important step," said D'Amato, "but nowhere near enough." Singer cautiously praised the decision as "a new sign of entente cordiale," but the World Jewish Congress considers the amount far too low. D'Amato was outraged that the Swiss wanted to manage the assets. "Why do you think the Swiss came forward," he said, "because of the generosity of their heart and spirit, or because they realize there could be damaging consequences if they continue their...
What happened last Friday night might be termed, in the jargon of the ever precarious airline business, a near miss. A showdown strike by American Airlines pilots was avoided only by the dramatic intervention of someone who doesn't fly commercial, the President of the U.S. Bill Clinton, apparently not at all eager to see billions of dollars drained from the prospering U.S. economy, used a provision of the Railway Labor Act (which governs organized labor in the airline industry) to impose a 60-day cooling-off period...
...unions with which the company must deal, none carries anywhere near the clout of the flyboys and -girls, a highly trained, highly paid and highly agitated bunch who have always seen themselves on a par with management, with one exception: pilots cannot be replaced quickly or easily. The pilots' union badly bloodied United Airlines in a strike in 1985, and pilots hammered the final nail in Eastern Airlines' corporate coffin in a strike in 1989. The majority of American's pilots served in the military, and many seem to relish the notion of a dogfight with their famously pugnacious boss...
With the economy healthy, travel booming and airlines' profits surging, the industry is less likely to bring back the frills. "The quality of the experience has declined over time," says Deutsch. "The airlines have the upper hand. And I don't see it changing in the near future." So fasten your seat belts, folks--it's going to be a bumpy flight...
Meanwhile, Ovitz has been upgrading his real estate portfolio. Even as the ax was poised at Disney, he sewed up the purchase of the Dancing Bear Ranch in Aspen for $5.5 million. The 500-plus acres are near Disney chairman Michael Eisner's home, although presumably they won't be vacationing together as they have in the past. In Malibu, California, Ovitz is buying a few acres of property on a seaside bluff, a $5 million parcel belonging to Motown mogul Berry Gordy. Malibu property has a distressing habit of sliding into the sea or turning into charcoal, yet this...