Word: ruin
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...purpose, Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes sagely commented that when competent men engage in speculation, it is "the self-adjustment of society to the probable." But he added that its pervasive peril surfaces when "the success of the strong induces imitation by the weak, and incompetent persons bring themselves to ruin." Incompetent speculators lack, somehow, the sang-froid of an emotionless Baruch or the attributes of another successful pre-Depression speculator, Joseph P. Kennedy. Old Joe succeeded in the Great Bull Market of the '20s and magnificently survived the crash, suggested a friend, because he possessed "a passion for facts...
...present, lacking these qualifications, many an incompetent has more opportunity than ever to achieve ruin. Speculation in the prospering U.S. has become not merely an easy but an enviable thing to do. For little money down and years to pay the balance, an Iowa farmer or Rhode Island schoolteacher can acquire without seeing it a small strip of Florida that is bound to quadruple in value-or so the salesmen hint, using a Will Rogers slogan, "Buy land, they're not makin' it any more." Art has become as much of a speculative exercise as an esthetic experience...
...make sure that no one cheats. If carried out as promised, that pact would almost certainly result in the fall of Sallal, and the Yemen Premier immediately let out a loud complaint. Big Brother, he wailed, had betrayed him. But Nasser had no other choice. So desperately close to ruin has the Israeli war left Egypt that he simply cannot afford the expense of keeping troops in Yemen. He can barely afford to keep them in Cairo...
...give or take a few years. This is an Ugly Duckling syndrome embodying wish fulfillment-identifying with someone who has succeeded time and time again in spite of being shunned, laughed at and teased. Luckily for Judy Garland, she succeeds even though these would-be Cinderellas almost ruin her concerts with their fanatic screaming...
Despite the economic ruin that would follow a massive Belgian withdrawal, Mobutu was anything but contrite. He denied personal responsibility for the rioting, insisted that all well-meaning whites were perfectly safe in his country. If there was any anti-Belgian hysteria, he said, it was all to be blamed on the mercenaries sitting boldly in Bukavu and issuing ultimatums calling for the return of Moise Tshombe...