Word: quarterly
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...most recent example of statistics gone awry involved the gross national product, the broad measure of the country's output of goods and services. On April 26 the Commerce Department announced that the GNP grew at a moderate annual rate of 2.3% in the first quarter of 1988. Experts interpreted the figure as proof that the economy was running smoothly. A month later, Government statisticians boosted first-quarter GNP growth to 3.9%, a change of nearly 70%. Suddenly, investors had reason to fear that the economy was overheating and that inflation was in danger of accelerating...
...reason for the sharp revision was simple: the first GNP figure was based on incomplete information. The Government reports a quarter's GNP after data for only the first two months are available; the statisticians make educated guesses about what happened during the third month. In this instance, an unexpected surge in exports in March led to the radical change in the calculation of the growth rate...
Like Jackson, Brown was born to aching poverty and prejudice; he grew up in a one-room shack in tiny Mineola, Texas, east of Dallas. He recalls shining white men's shoes, then fishing the quarter tips from a spittoon. After high school, he fled to San Francisco, worked his way through college and law school and into local politics. Elected to the state assembly in 1964, he became known as a radical who applauded the Watts riots and demanded more state spending for the poor. But he also developed a reputation for mastery of legislative rules and budget arcana...
...General Motors for the first time in 62 years, Ford has kept its accelerator to the floor. In 1987 it posted an all-time industry high of $4.6 billion in profits, with sales of $71.6 billion. In 1988 Ford is already ahead of last year's blistering pace. First-quarter earnings rose by 8.9% from the same period in 1987, to $1.62 billion, topping the combined profits of GM ($1.1 billion) and Chrysler ($184 million). Though 75% of Ford's earnings come from the U.S., it is also doing well around the world. Revenues in Western Europe went...
...first beauty contest since the 1949 revolution, and students, dancers, even nurses from the People's Liberation Army rushed to sign up as contestants. Communist Party hard-liners, however, apparently felt that bourgeois tendencies were getting out of hand. Television coverage of the event was canceled. Instead, 40 quarter-finalists assembled last week before a sprinkling of spectators in an austere union hall for what was dubbed a tea party. Rather than choose a single Miss Beijing, the pageant organizers honored twelve "outstanding contestants who left a relatively deep impression." Several were chosen for their "inner beauty" rather than their...