Word: specter
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Naturally, the sudden ascent of a Federal Security Service boss has raised the specter of unconstitutional moves. Inside Russia, Putin is known as an "ice-head" or tough hardened guy--not the ideal pedigree for shoring up the nation's rickety democratic system. But while Putin and Yeltsin could declare a state of emergency, disband the Duma or cancel elections, Kremlin aides insist that Yeltsin appreciates the importance of a peaceful transfer of power...
...showed my mammograms to four other radiologists. Excessive, maybe. But one was equivocal, and the other three said they would never have suggested a biopsy. That was reassuring but confusing. The fact remained that a skilled radiologist had raised the specter of breast cancer, and while other doctors saw things differently, I was stuck. No one could undo her written report, not in this litigious age. Meanwhile, the idea that I might have cancer had taken root. I knew that if I didn't have the tissue analyzed by a pathologist, I'd never stop worrying...
...specter is haunting Wall Street--the specter of runaway interest rates. Yields on bellwether U.S. 30-year Treasury bonds in early June jumped to just over 6%, the highest close in more than a year, as nervous traders bid prices lower. They are taking no chances that a flare-up of inflation will squeeze the real return to buyers...
Relax. That won't happen. This specter is no more real than the many others that stock and bond traders torture themselves with every now and then, especially when times are good. In fact, inflation is likely to revive only slightly, if at all. The Fed may not tighten at all, and if it does, it will most likely be with a small, one-shot move that's already been discounted. Interest rates a year from now may well be lower than at present...
...reactions; instead he began a journey that would make him the world's most famous political dissident and ultimately the inspiration for the democratic movement that doomed the Soviet empire. Sakharov realized that the ideals he had pursued as a scientist--compassion, freedom, truth--could not coexist with the specter of the arms race or thrive under the authoritarian grip of state communism. "That was probably the most terrible lesson of my life," he wrote. "You can't sit on two chairs at once...