Word: specter
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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Aside from inflated drug and guerrilla violence, another specter is unrest resulting from Mexico's deflated economy. Given its enormous reliance on the U.S. market - and on remittances from Mexican workers there, which have declined sharply this year - the global recession has hit Mexico especially hard. Its GDP, in fact, will contract more than 5% in 2009, exacerbating unemployment as well as Mexico's chronic poverty. A report this year by the Colegio de Mexico, one of the country's top universities, warned, "A national social explosion is knocking at the door." Said top Roman Catholic Bishop Gustavo Rodriguez...
President Obama knows that the Afghan war is going badly, but he insists that the specter of an al-Qaeda comeback makes Afghanistan a "war of necessity." So he has ordered some 30,000 new troops to the front, hoping to hold the line enough that Afghan forces can be built up to eventually take over the mission from the U.S. It may sound like a limited goal, after the sweeping visions of democracy promised during the Bush years. But even that relatively modest strategy is based on some very questionable assumptions. (See a slide show...
...month repayment standstill on part of the sheikdom's $80 billion debt. The immediate issue is Dubai's inability to come through on a $3.52 billion tranche due in mid-December. Yet, with some 400 property projects already reportedly frozen in Dubai, the news raised the specter of a gigantic default that would sink exposed creditors around the world. "Inspired by Islamic artifacts," read the sheik's post on Twitter during a visit to the British Museum as share prices from Tokyo to New York City were about to plunge in response to Dubai's announcement. (See a story about...
...When the specter asks Pertile about his rumored departure, Pertile--a Dante scholar who has been notably involved, to say the least, with House crew--offers: “'Mr. Eliot, you see, this is our tenth year, and the third in which we hold the Agassiz Cup. I don’t think we should tempt fortune further...we have had such a wonderful run here for the past ten years, that to ask you and the other Gods'--he liked that a lot!--'to ask you and the other Gods for more'--he loved that!--'might be foolish?...
...Asian image that resonates with me isn't the bow, but the President alone on the Great Wall. That image - the noble loner - is clearly one the White House wants to project. But it raises the specter of isolation. Most Presidents have a significant other when it comes to policy. Bush Junior had Cheney; Clinton had Hillary; Bush the Elder had James Baker; Nixon had Kissinger. Obama's conservative critics poke fun at his overweening ego, but I suspect that the President's need to find an alter ego, an intellectual equal - in addition to the First Lady...