Word: robustness
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Destination clubs have enjoyed robust growth, fueled by affluent baby boomers, who are opting to join clubs that give them a choice of world getaways rather than buying the traditional second home. The clubs have been around only since the late 1990s, when Tanner & Haley pioneered the concept. There are now 18 in the U.S., each with about 30 properties. Members pay an average $230,000 to join and $15,000 in annual dues, says Dick Ragatz, president of Ragatz Associates, a resort-industry consultant in Eugene, Ore. Some clubs are doubling their membership each year and have been unable...
Despite such conciliatory rhetoric from some Iranian officials, it is likely that many of the mullahs still dream of a robust nuclear program--if Iran had the capacity to make a bomb, it would get the respect it deserves. That conforms with Iran's self-image as a nation whose glorious past and potential greatness are undermined by implacable enemies such as the U.S. According to experts inside and outside the country, the regime sees bargaining over its nuclear rights as a way to recast the strategic balance in the region in Iran's favor, to gain stature and recognition...
...days--its economy has shrunk 4% since 1999, after adjusting for inflation--and the predicament of the chair triangle helps explain why. Along with Germany and France, the nation has been struggling with weak consumer spending, waning productivity and rising government deficits. But unlike its neighbors, Italy lacks large robust corporations that can export their way out of trouble. Many of the thousands of small and medium-size companies that once gave the Italian economy its flexibility and dynamism are poorly equipped to deal with the challenges of a fast-changing world. Most don't have the scale, the funding...
...Robert Wade of the London School of Economics, there is "an unusually deeply held belief in the merits of free trade and free investment," there are limits. When Russian gas behemoth Gazprom started stalking the British supplier Centrica, officials let it be known that "any new ownership would face robust scrutiny." Put all those straws in the wind and you've got a flying haystack. "We're at a point here," says Kenneth Courtis, vice chairman of Goldman Sachs Asia, "where if this is just a little pop it doesn't mean very much. But if it's the beginning...
What they have done, as a visit to the show in its last week of previews revealed, is to create a robust summary and emotional evocation of the story--the one LOTR you can consume in a single evening and say, with a satisfied smile, "Yes. That...