Word: worlding
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...anger. All of Britain is in a deep funk: although its economy is finally growing after a prolonged recession, that growth is so tender that many fear it will shrivel and give way to a second, deeper contraction. Britons are downcast, their politicians discredited. In one of the world's oldest democracies, there's little enthusiasm for the national and local elections due in early May. Polls show that neither of the two largest parties - the Labour incumbents or their Conservative challengers - is on course for an overall majority in Parliament. There's little enthusiasm, either, for their respective leaders...
...economic turbulence that has contributed to the recent roller-coaster ride of the British pound. After a recent poll showed Labour and Conservatives running neck and neck, the pound plunged 2% against the dollar in a few hours. Britain clings to a nostalgic sense of its place in the world as a top-tier global economic power. It's still the world's sixth largest economy, but other numbers are not so flattering. Britain's budget deficit - ?178 billion, according to the Treasury - is the largest as a proportion of GDP among G-7 nations. Unemployment stands at 2.46 million...
...Labour government to seek a humiliating bailout from the International Monetary Fund. Margaret Thatcher's Conservatives took power in 1979 and went on to abolish exchange controls, cut taxes and engineer the 1986 deregulation of financial markets, known as Big Bang, restoring London's position as one of the world's most important financial centers. Blair's New Labour did nothing to restrict the unfettered growth of the City, as London's financial district is called. In 1998, Blair's adviser Peter Mandelson, now the most powerful member of Brown's Cabinet, said Labour was "intensely relaxed about people getting...
...government's lead in global efforts to stabilize the banking system and its $30 billion of fiscal stimulus and argues that stimulus spending must continue. Conservatives, however, propose swifter action to reduce Britain's borrowing. That view has been bolstered over recent weeks with the world's three biggest credit-rating agencies raising concerns that the scale of debt puts Britain at significant risk of default. That might seem to raise the mortifying prospect of another British Prime Minister going cap in hand to the IMF. Ironically, the IMF backs Labour's more cautious approach to deficit reduction, warning...
...loathing for the abusers, his view on how they should be treated was more complicated. Some years before, as head of the Vatican body investigating abuse by priests, he argued that accused clergymen should not be handed over to secular authorities. Rather, he wrote confidentially to bishops around the world in 2001, they should first be investigated under utmost secrecy within the church - thereby avoiding public hysteria and second-guessing by the media. (See pictures of President Obama meeting Pope Benedict...