Word: soft
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...With the economy sacked this season, even the activity surrounding the Super Bowl, which will be played on Feb. 1 in Tampa, Fla., between the Arizona Cardinals and Pittsburgh Steelers, is slowing down. "It's never been this soft before," says Alan Bachand, a party promoter and hotel broker who has been working the Super Bowl for the past 12 years. "There just aren't as many good parties going on. Hot tickets that were going for $3,000 are now selling for between $400 and $700. The parties aren't getting as much sponsorship." (See pictures of Super Bowl...
...capital for large infrastructure programs from the Treasury to the private enterprises that have to do the work and hire the people. In regions where enough workers are not available to carry out some of the plans, the people may have to relocate to fill the jobs. The soft underbelly of the plan is its logistics...
...with the spotlight on, Schapiro is in the prickly position of having to defend her enforcement record. At her hearing, the soft-spoken Schapiro bristled at media reports that she "infrequently" pursued tough action against big Wall Street names, saying the stories painted an "unfair picture." While chief at FINRA, she countered, her team handled 15,000 enforcement cases, including big names like Morgan Stanley, Citigroup, Merrill-Lynch and Lehman. "I have never been afraid to go after people I thought who have violated the public trust...
When it comes to soft power--the power to persuade, not coerce--things are little better. True, anti-Americanism is abating as brand Obama rejuvenates brand U.S.A. But popularity is not the same as power (ask Canada or Sweden). In the 1990s, American soft power was based on more than goodwill; it was based on economic and ideological hegemony. There was only one widely accepted path to prosperity--deregulated, American-style capitalism. And there was one central destination for a poor country seeking the investment and aid it needed to travel down that path: Washington. The U.S. and its allies...
...make matters worse, public support for the Afghan war has grown noticeably soft. The reason is that to most Americans, the war in Afghanistan has always been principally a war against al-Qaeda--to retaliate for 9/11 and eliminate its safe haven--not a war to build a centralized, democratic state in the Hindu Kush, which is a far harder thing. Obama is right to increase America's military, economic and diplomatic muscle in Afghanistan and across the border in Pakistan, but that power surge will work only if he also sets more realistic expectations. Ultimately, the U.S. will have...