Word: perring
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...such matters, they focus on the concept of productivity. "Productivity growth," wrote economist (and now Nobel laureate and New York Times columnist) Paul Krugman back in 1990, "is the single most important factor affecting our economic well-being." It was growth in productivity - most commonly measured as economic output per hour worked - during the Industrial Revolution that powered the rise of the West out of millenniums of stagnation. It was a productivity boom that ushered in America's postwar era of mass affluence...
Early in to Siberia, a new novel by Per Petterson (Graywolf Press; 245 pages), the narrator and her older brother cut their hands and mix their blood. It's a familiar childhood ritual, sweetened by naive redundancy: How much closer than siblings can you be? The bond between this sister and brother turns out to be a love story--pure, but as painful as the touch of steel to skin...
...Democratic challengers aren't particularly strong candidates. Several are inexperienced; others are more liberal than their states. Many seemed almost struck dumb when, as gasoline prices soared this summer, Republicans hit on the suddenly popular idea of drilling for more oil. But the market meltdown has replaced $4-per-gal. gas as voters' top concern, and ever since Herbert Hoover, voters have looked to Democrats in economic hard times. "We're not catching a break," laments Nevada Senator John Ensign, Schumer's GOP counterpart who runs the National Republican Senatorial Committee...
...roughly 7 miles (12 km) away. That's about the total amount of ground it has covered since it arrived. Even if it follows a beeline route, its slow speed and the starts and stops it must make along the way limit it to about 110 yd. (100 m) per day--meaning it will need two years to get where it's going. Still, the trip should be easier than it once would have been, thanks to a sister ship, the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, which arrived in 2006 and can provide eye-in-the-sky guidance...
...economic perspective, however, Russian problems seem miniscule compared to those faced by its newfound Latin American ally. In an electoral year, Chavez is eager to regain popular support, but the oil-producing country has contracted its growth forecasts due to lack of investment. As inflation reaches over 30 percent per year, the government has increased public sector salaries, a populist move that will only worsen inflationary pressures. Despite the sky-high oil prices, Venezuela is not able to grow its production because the government has used all the money for clientelist programs, rather than securing future investment. Unsurprisingly, less than...