Word: slump
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...Which is why, despite the fact that the shallowest recession in history ended more than a year ago, and despite continued low interest rates, relatively low unemployment and negligible inflation, many Americans persist in believing that the economy is faltering and getting worse. With the markets in their worst slump since the Great Depression, it's no wonder. And so, as Ryan Lizza wrote in this week's New Republic, Bush's plan is driven by a faith in the "wealth effect" -- the theory that as average Americans watched their retirement portfolios expand during last decade's boom, they felt...
Even as the application of data mining has spread throughout the retail, manufacturing, pharmaceutical and financial sectors, the lingering tech slump has slowed the technology's growth. This year will go down as the worst in history for information technology, with sales falling 2.3% after averaging a 12% annual growth rate over the past 20 years. Data-mining companies have been among the hardest hit in recent years: MicroStrategy, based in McLean, Va., rode the near messianic predictions of founder and CEO Michael Saylor from a market capitalization of $1 billion to more than $20 billion and back again...
...have bred early successes. CSFB has maintained its global No. 1 ranking among banks issuing high-yield bonds, and it has moved up three spots, to second place, in mergers and acquisitions. Second-quarter revenues increased 25% over the first quarter's but like its competitors, CSFB saw revenues slump in the third quarter. The firm denies allegations by the state of Massachusetts that it tainted stock research to favor its investment-banking clients...
...cost-saving and modernization. Other leaders are caving in, delaying or diluting plans to improve labor market flexibility and reform failing pension systems. How governments respond to this wave of strikes - and other walkouts that are still to come - will help determine how their economies weather the economic slump. In the rough-and-ready camp are British Prime Minister Tony Blair and his French counterpart, Jean-Pierre Raffarin. Last week Blair offered a deal to state healthcare workers for a pay rise tied to reforms, but refused wage demands by striking firefighters unless they modernize. Raffarin scored an important victory...
...latest hardware every time Intel unveils a speedier microprocessor or Microsoft releases a heftier version of Windows. According to the consumer technology-research firm Odyssey, home users nowadays are perfectly willing to go almost five years between PC purchases. Meanwhile, the computer industry, mired in its worst-ever sales slump, is desperate to dream up a compelling innovation that will put the forced back in forced obsolescence...