Word: primed
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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President Barack Obama is in Ottawa today for a private lunch with Prime Minister Stephen Harper, and the North-American economy is sure to be front and center. A softer "Buy American" provision in Obama's stimulus package that honors existing trade agreements such as NAFTA is sure to be discussed, as is the ongoing bailout of the North-American auto industry, which has deep roots in southern Ontario...
However the topic Obama might like to explore more than any other during the few hours he has with Harper - one with perhaps the most far-reaching consequences for U.S. recovery - is the Canadian prime minister's unprecedented spending to strengthen Canadian banks and keep credit flowing in the economy. (See the top 10 financial collapses...
...falls into the hands of recipients. Obama needs to be realistic about what the "bad bank" can accomplish - namely relieving banks of some junk assets at considerable cost to the taxpayer. It won't jump-start consumer lending - at least not in the foreseeable future if the lesson of Prime Minister Stephen Harper's experience is anything...
...world's second largest, is contracting at the fastest rate among all developed nations. GDP growth in the last quarter shrank at an alarming annualized rate of 12.7%, Japan's worst showing since the 1974 oil shock. But instead of taking vigorous steps to counteract a worsening recession, Prime Minister Taro Aso is lurching from one embarrassing gaffe to the next, and seems in imminent danger of losing control of his Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) - and control of the government...
...Indeed, the only thing falling faster than Japanese industrial output is Aso's popularity, which according to a recent Nippon Television survey has sunk to a 9.7% approval rate, the worst for a Japanese Prime Minister since 2001. Even fellow LDP stalwart Junichiro Koizumi, the influential former Prime Minister, has publicly criticized Aso's blunders, calling them "appalling" and "laughable." Nakagawa's Yeltsin-like meltdown "is one more nail in Aso's coffin," says Robert Dujarric, director at Temple University's Institute of Contemporary Japanese Studies. "It shows that he's incompetent and so is his administration...