Word: prop
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Conditions appeared to be ripe last week for the long-predicted breakup of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries. The pressure of OPEC's three-year struggle to prop up global oil prices seemed, at long last, to have fractured the group beyond repair. During the three-day emergency meeting in Geneva, OPEC's ministers let loose an unprecedented public display of insults, accusations and stubbornness. Yet once again the blowup failed to happen, and the group reached some broad agreements. Nonetheless, those accords showed convincingly that OPEC has lost its ability to dictate world oil prices...
...start of last week's currency trading, however, the pound had dropped to $1.1132 in London and only slightly more in New York, and it was sinking fast. Prime Minister Thatcher, an ardent champion of free markets, had always opposed official attempts to prop up a currency's value, but enough was enough. Said one minister: "No government sits on the sideline and lets its exchange rate disappear into the sea." On Monday the Thatcher government ordered the Bank of England to boost its prime lending rate from 10.5% to 12%, forcing corporate rates and home mortgages even higher...
There seems to be a pattern. The pattern is primarily economic, but there are military motivations as well. Just like in 1984, the whole point is the preservation of the status quo. We prop up the Philipino dictatorship because if the country was subject to majority rule, they would almost certainly deprive us of our military base there...
...character truly come to life. He is evil and sly when he demands his "bond." pathetic and desperate when he calls for "revenge," and a maligned and wronged father when persecuted by the younger generation. But, why is he in an electric wheelchair, aside from its being a useful prop with which to propel him around the stage? Shylock is handicapped enough by being a Jew in a Christian society, and the '20s setting emphasizes that such prejudices are universal in time. But this added handicap is distracting: when he suddenly rumps out of the chair during the "revenge" speech...
...ministers succeeded in their initial goal to prop up oil prices in short-term trading. Now they hope that their production cuts will lock in those gains when winter oil demand increases. OPEC is gambling that the market will turn...