Word: trend
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Thrifts have been gradually replacing those loans with adjustable-rate mortgages, or ARMs, which protect the institutions from unexpected rate increases. In addition, the steady decline of interest rates has given thrifts a breather by reducing their cost of attracting deposits. The welcome trend continued last week. The Federal Reserve Board cut the rate it charges its member banks from 8% to 7.5%. Several major banks dropped their bench-mark prime rate by half a percentage point to 10%, the lowest since 1978. The easing of rates has helped most thrifts make profits again. While about 85% of thrifts were...
...relieve stress, says John Bagshaw, a University of California associate professor of medicine, but they often cut down consumption or quit entirely when they begin an exercise program. Reason: the endorphins released by a workout preclude the need for alcohol. Tapering off for health reasons may be an enduring trend for an aging and sedentary population. "We're becoming a nation of clerks," says Megatrends Author John Naisbitt. "Over 70% of us process information; if we don't take care of our bodies...
Even before Americans began cutting back, the U.S. was temperate about alcohol, at least by comparison with many other nations where drinking is deeply woven into the fabric of social life. Changes now are also visible abroad. Thanks to a government sobriety pitch and a burgeoning fitness trend, in 1984 French consumption of table wine was down 4% from the year before. Diabolo Menthe (mint-flavored fizzy lemonade) and Brut de Pomme (a cider) are the latest nonalcoholic quaffs at cafes. "People used to drink wine with their meals as a matter of course," Claude Vilain, of France's Committee...
Some experts think that the neo-temperance mood in America could lead to a new prohibition era, even though there is a national trend away from local option laws that ban sales of liquor by the drink. Says Yale Professor David Musto: "Historically, temperance moods have led to prohibition. There's a human tendency to get carried away." Even if Musto is right, chances are that the pendulum of excess will swing back again. What put an end to Prohibition in 1933 was not so much that it was unworkable and unenforceable. According to some historians, it lowered U.S. drinking...
...Tony nominations also confirmed the wisdom and courage of the producers of three shows that have bucked this trend. All three lacked surefire commercial appeal, and all faced some critical skepticism, but they defied the doomsayers and hung on. Last week they were rewarded. Big River, a sweet, small, no-stars musical based on Mark Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, captured ten nominations, one for best musical. Joe Egg, a searing and yet raucously funny story about the parents of a hopelessly retarded child, was nominated for three acting awards and for best revival. Ma Rainey's Black...