Word: sluggish
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...is Nicole Leibinger-Kammüller still smiling? The chief executive of Trumpf, a family-owned machine-tool firm in Germany, has watched orders from the critical U.S. market slow significantly in the past few months. But while the housing-bled U.S. economy has been sluggish, and the dollar weak, it's all proving quite manageable. "We can feel the U.S. slowdown, but it's not unsettling. There's no crash," Leibinger-Kammüller says. Trumpf's sales of its metal-cutting machines elsewhere--to Saudi Arabia, to Singapore and especially in Germany--continue to rack up double-digit growth rates...
...astonishing pace of 10% growth or more, pulling much of Asia with it. Japan's economy, the world's second largest, is again expanding and the deflation that has racked the country for years is coming to an end. And in Europe, where the economy has been sluggish for most of this decade, there's fresh evidence that Germany-after four years of almost no growth-is finally rebounding...
...this housing slowdown will be. Many other real estate markets around the globe rose in tandem with the U.S. in recent years, but so far none have come back down to earth with the same force. Perhaps most surprisingly, American consumers are continuing to spend, regardless: automobile purchases are sluggish, but monthly retail sales rose by a higher-than-forecast 0.9% from November to December. "I'm not prepared to bet against the American consumer. That's a highly dangerous proposition," says Jesper Koll, chief Japan economist for Merrill Lynch...
...fiber-optic cables that handle some 90% of phone calls and data traffic in the region. Millions of homes and businesses across Asia were left without Internet access, e-mail and international phone connections. Financial markets were interrupted. And those lucky enough to connect to overseas websites experienced exasperatingly sluggish data-transfer speeds. While most services have been at least partially restored, a flotilla of repair vessels is expected to be working on the knocked-out cables for up to four weeks before networks are back to normal...
Those are the best nights, where playing through a two-hour game seems effortless and momentary. Other games bring smaller crowds or fans with less energy; sometimes the team starts off a little sluggish. Even at these times, we pour all of our energy and ourselves into cheers and our playing, hoping to rouse the spirits of those around...