Word: shakedowns
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...most part, though, Europeans greeted the launch with good humor and even a measure of civic-mindedness. A national French bank tellers' strike scheduled for Jan. 2 - widely viewed even in union-friendly France as an opportunistic shakedown - fizzled out after almost everyone showed up for work. And those much-photographed queues outside some banks were strictly voluntary displays of euro- enthusiasm, since in most countries the old currencies are still good for at least another month. The Creditanstalt bank in Vienna opened for five hours on New Year's Day and found itself swamped with customers trading in their...
...made organic, however, may emerge as the real winner in the current beef shakedown. German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder has declared his intention to reorient agricultural policy "in the interest of the consumer" by shifting aid from industrial "agrofactories" to organic farms. Agriculture Minister Renate Künast is aiming to increase the proportion of organically farmed land from 2.6% to 20% within the next 10 years. Even without more government aid, Europe's organic farmers are enjoying flush times. "Every time there's another bse scare, our customers increase," says Richard Counsell, an organic farmer in southwest England...
...safe, at another in a crate of potatoes. They were convinced that whoever kept the painting met with misfortune, and with good reason: the young man who brought the canvas to the bank disappeared for days afterward only to resurface in a battered, confused state, the victim of a shakedown by racketeers...
...reputation? Maybe. The pressure to reform is considerable: Major corporations, such as Coke and IBM, which send the IOC $50 million checks so that they can use the Olympic rings in their ads, are not amused with the committee's image as a bunch of shameless shakedown artists. But Samaranch doesn't inspire much confidence when he still largely blames the mess on the competing cities for putting out all those tempting bribes...
...Jackson] missed his calling. What Jesse should be is our business shakedown artist," says black leader Bruce Llewelyn, who is a former member of the Carter administration...