Word: sobering
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Another December at the movie theater can only mean one thing: Another deluge of sober, high-minded Oscar hopefuls (Frost/Nixon, The Reader, Doubt), all made with the aim of securing movie studios the prestige of year-end awards. (See TIME's list of the top 10 films...
Bernhard Schlink's The Reader is one of those tricky novels that, based on the sober moral questions it poses and its close-to-elegant style, pretends to high literary seriousness while offering its readers - millions upon millions of them in the 37 countries where it has been translated - plenty of lubriciously rendered romps in the hay with a woman in her mid-30s and an eager young man in his mid-teens. Stephen Daldry's film, written by David Hare, is faithful both to the novel's plot and to its higher aspirations. This is not an entirely good...
...Thankfully, China is unlikely to go there. For years, its economic policymaking élites have been sober-minded and effective. U.S. officials privately believe that their Chinese counterparts know there is no going back on the currency. Perhaps the more pressing topic of discussion at the meeting this week was the possibility of even more government stimulus coming in China - on top of the 4 trillion RMB ($588 billion) package China announced to great fanfare a month ago. Two weeks later, Beijing upped the ante with an interest-rate cut and tax rebates, and now there are unconfirmed reports that...
...that Citi's been bailed out? Do toxic assets remain on other institutions' books? And if so, why? Is it too difficult for the government to price them and run the auctions that would get rid of them? So Tim, do us all a favor. Make two long, sober speeches: one explaining systemic risk, and one explaining, conceptually, what you will be up to once you take over at Treasury. The chuckleheads of American pop culture and political journalism be damned; these times - alas - demand seriousness. And you, thank God, are up to that...
...time, current estimates call for the Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS) to make next year’s budget about $200 million thinner. In other words, add Mass. Ave. to the cliché about Wall Street and Main Street. Faust’s original letter sounded hopeful yet sober, and we feel the same. For all our complaints and cynicism, universities are in the business of helping people through constant growth—whether it be the creation of new student spaces, money for research, or job creation for community members. When Harvard stops spending, it stops growing...