Word: sours
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...Cumberland County Fair in New Jersey last week, a gray-haired fellow in a grouchy mood complained to his buddy, "We're walking in freakin' circles!" So true--bulb-blinking, sweet-and-sour circles of life...
That's not to say all was well in the 1990s, especially in foreign policy. Responsibilities in places ranging from Bosnia to Rwanda to Afghanistan were shirked, and gathering dangers weren't dealt with. Still, the sour complaints and dire prognoses of 1992--oh, my God, the budget deficit will do us in!--were quickly overtaken by events. What's more, the fear of many conservatives that we might be at the mercy of unstoppable forces of social disintegration turned out to be wrong. Indeed, the dire predictions were rendered obsolete so quickly that one wonders whether we were...
...since then, this nation of 1 million has largely stagnated. Gang violence paralyzes the streets of capital Dili. Incomes haven't increased, while malnutrition is up. And citizens are still reeling from another paroxysm of violence that erupted last year after an army revolt went sour, resulting in dozens of deaths. Tens of thousands of people still live in refugee camps, too afraid to return home. U.N. peacekeepers again patrol the streets...
...Clearly Bloomberg does not plan to enter the race until he sees whom the major parties settle on as nominees, likely early next year. At that point, he would look to see how unfavorably those two candidates are seen, how sour the mood of the country is on politics-as-usual, and how open the electorate seems to a candidate Bloomberg himself describes as "a short, Jewish, divorced billionaire," one who has now turned his back on both the Democrats and the Republicans...
What the OECD data seem to suggest is that you can run a retirement plan that's fiscally sound but stingy, or you can make big promises that will eventually go sour. The U.S. fits mostly in the former category--for all the gnashing of teeth about Social Security, its funding problems are modest by global standards...