Word: slump
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...slowdown isn't limited to the big three sports. NASCAR has been mired in a slump all season. Attendance is down, and a recent race at Talladega Superspeedway drew 50,000 fewer fans than the same event a year ago. The NCAA is cutting travel costs to combat the economic downturn. The organization will reimburse schools for only two bags of luggage per traveler, which will produce an expected savings of $1.5 million per year. Golf agents have reported a rough endorsement market for players, as the financial-services companies that have supported the sport got hit hardest by this...
...slump in exports has pretty grim implications for the country's manufacturing boomtowns, and the pain is already being felt. Stanley Lau, deputy chairman of the Federation of Hong Kong Industries, estimates that export orders at some 70,000 factories owned by Hong Kong companies in southern China have declined 5%-10% this year compared with 2007. Recent months have seen a first wave of bankruptcies and closures among the tens of thousands of factories in industrial zones from Guangzhou to Shanghai that make toys, jeans and PCs bound for U.S. retailers...
...After 35% growth in real estate investment in the first half of the year, Wang estimates that growth dropped sharply to some 20% in July and August. The property sector accounts for about a quarter of all fixed-asset investment in China and about 10% of national employment. A slump could drag down other sectors like steel production. "Beijing cannot afford a collapse in the housing market," wrote Jing Ulrich, chairman of China equities for JPMorgan, in a recent note to investors...
...Government action could shield the Chinese economy from the worst of a global slump. Indeed, economists currently say China ought to remain a relatively bright spot amid the economic gloom. Merrill Lynch estimates that China will account for 40% of world GDP growth in 2009. Continued strong Chinese demand for raw materials, machinery and consumer goods is expected to prop up other Asian economies - the region as a whole is projected to dodge a recession next year...
Easy money was another remedy proposed by Keynes, although he didn't think it alone was enough to end a deep slump. Bernanke's Fed is giving us that too, with short-term interest rates at 1.5% and program after new program to keep cash flowing to banks and businesses...