Word: plasticity
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...bankruptcy boom may signal trouble ahead for the U.S. economy. Real after-tax income growth has been slow for years, yet consumers have continued to buy; they have simply substituted debt for cash. Now they are even flashing plastic to buy groceries. Household borrowing currently stands at a record $1.14 trillion, an amount equal to Britain's entire gross domestic product. A spike in interest rates could thus send U.S. consumers--not to mention the rest of the economy--into a funk...
...reason for the increase in bankruptcies: banks. As the debt keeps building, banks continue to flood mailboxes with solicitations of plastic cash--a record 2.7 billion offers were sent out last year. With interest rates that often exceed 18%, and with the banks' cost of money around 3%, credit cards now represent the banks' most profitable source of loans. Small wonder that consumer debt comprises about half of all bank lending, up from one-third a decade ago. Some lenders brazenly target new bankruptcy filers, who, for the following six years, are legally barred from declaring bankruptcy and walking away...
...this dream that I was supposed to bring the inside of the boat to practice," says Betsy McCagg, "and I forgot it. So we sat in the boat, but there was nothing to hold the seats up, and the boat collapsed. It was like sitting in a plastic bag, because I had all the parts in my house." Teammates Annie Kakela and Mary McCagg, who is Betsy's twin sister, laugh, incredulously but nervously, at the notion...
WILLIAM MAGEE, 52, and KATHLEEN MAGEE, 51; NORFOLK, VA.; founders of Operation Smile Plastic surgeon William and his social-worker wife Kathleen began "OpSmile" in 1982; since then it has performed surgery on 18,000 kids in 15 countries to correct--without charge--such disfigurements as cleft palates and burn scars, while training local doctors in the procedures. Says William: "The world is changed by emotion." On June 20, the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation will award the group a $1 million prize...
...unconsidered trifles, he was a whiz. He put in everything, including the kitchen sink--no, make that the whole kitchen. Some of the catalog entries for this show, listing title, date and materials, sound more like small towns than works of art: "The Ozymandias Parade, 1985. Tableau: wood, plastic, mirrored plexiglass, fiberglass horses, light bulbs, recorded music, paint, clothing, plaster casts, rubber, metal, galvanized sheet metal, polyester resin, wagon, pork barrel, suitcases, fake money, telephone, miniature flags, and toys, 147 x 349 x 180 [inches...