Word: toxicants
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...gone up for decades. But, as defaults did rise, the value of these derivatives cascaded and the banks and other institutions which held them were required to take massive losses. At Davos, Russian and Chinese leaders attacked the U.S. for the "failure" of regulators which allowed the spread of toxic derivatives...
...point the original mathematical projections for the performance of mortgage-backed paper began to sharply diverge from what was actually happening. With the cash flow from many mortgage pools dropping quickly, the derivatives based on them began to lose a tremendous part of their value. The paper became so "toxic" from a performance standpoint that the trading in the instruments locked up, making them illiquid and driving down their values even faster...
...government walked away from the entire matter because it was complex and time consuming. This is the same reason that the Treasury Department wrote checks to the banks instead of buying their toxic assets even though Congress had been told that the TARP funds would only be used to buy toxic assets. It was quicker and easier to just give the banks money because of the worsening crisis...
...launch a dedicated Barbie concept store for other reasons. Mattel imports 65% of its products from Chinese factories - a fact that became embarrassingly obvious in 2007, when the company had to recall nearly 20 million Chinese-made toys. Mattel later admitted that most of the defects, which included toxic lead paint and magnets that became lethal if ingested, were a result of design flaws, not manufacturing mistakes, but China's reputation had already taken a beating. The Shanghai store helps to repair the company's image in China...
...that raw brainpower comes with handicaps as well, including a tendency to make verbal blunders that haunt Summers for years. As chief economist at the World Bank, he penned a memo explaining the "impeccable" economic logic of dumping toxic waste in developing countries, igniting a firestorm despite his protests that he was being sarcastic. Years later, as president of Harvard, he publicly raised the hypothesis that women have a less innate ability for science and math than men do, sparking a controversy that helped lead to his dismissal from the top job, despite repeated apologies and clarifications. "The stories...