Word: slowdown
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1980-1989
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...peacetime expansion, signs are multiplying that for many Americans the fat times are coming to an end. In their place, economists prophesy everything from a soft landing, which could mean weak growth but little pain, to the ominous prospect of a deep recession. Few seers doubt, however, that a slowdown is at hand. "This has been a long expansion," says Allen Sinai, chief economist of the Boston Company Economic Advisors, a leading consulting firm. "But the spring...
Those concerns leave the Federal Reserve Board in a quandary. Under Chairman Alan Greenspan, the Fed has engineered the slowdown by nudging up interest rates for more than a year in hopes of keeping inflation in check. Since May 1988, the prime rate that banks charge major corporate customers has climbed from 8.5% to 11.5% and fixed rates on home mortgages have risen from about 10% to 11.5%. Yet while the tight money has clobbered housing and other big-ticket items, inflation poses a serious threat. If Greenspan vigorously pushes interest rates higher to combat that threat, he risks...
...conflicting advice it is getting, the Fed may be steering an astute political course. "Politicians know that it's better to have a slowdown now than during the 1990 election," says John Makin, director of fiscal-policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington. And while the experts may agree on little else, most say the economy will remain in precarious health until Congress and the White House devise a realistic plan to cut the budget deficit. That will take some doing. When a perplexed Pharaoh awoke from his dream-filled sleep, Joseph advised the ruler to store food...
...America, as the nation's over-65 population rises from about 28 million today to a projected 35 million by the year 2000. Callahan also blames high-tech research for producing ingenious new operations that remain astronomically pricey even as they become popular and desirable. He proposes a slowdown on developing gimmicky procedures like artificial hearts and a more careful review of their social and economic consequences. Says he: "We keep inventing new ways to spend money, and that complicates things...
...four-year deals on most 1988 and - '89 models. Chrysler offered the same rates on the three- and four-year plans. The automakers have also increased their rebates to as much as $2,000 on slower-selling vehicles. The Big Three are suffering a painful sales slowdown, partly because of rising interest rates. Sales of U.S.-made cars and trucks fell 12.6% in March, compared with the same month...