North America

union workers

            11.9: The percentage of American workers in unions last year, the lowest proportion in more than 70 years, according to the government’s Bureau of Labor Statistics. The number of workers in unions fell by 612,000 last year, to 14.7 million. About 20 percent of workers were in unions in 1983; the figure was [...]

Apple/ cash

       [Some Apple investors have] deep frustrations over Apple's cash pile, a $50 billion lode that is expected to swell to $70 billion by year-end. The vast sum exceeds the gross domestic product of two-thirds of the world's countries—and all but 36 of the market values of companies in the Standard & Poor's 500-stock [...]

Carrie Fisher/bipolar

       Q. Just to clarify, do you suffer from manic depression or bipolar disorder? FISHER They say bipolar now. It’s the same as manic depression. I think manic depression is more descriptive. Bipolar sounds like a gay bear.       [Italics added.] See article at: NYT 05Dec10: "No Business Like Their Family Business" [featuring a joint [...]

Portland/ retire

  In the music video that kicks off “Portlandia,” a new comedy series making its debut Jan. 21 on IFC, Fred Armisen walks the streets of Portland, Ore., singing to a flat, synthesized soundtrack and praising [Portland] as a flannel-clad slacker’s paradise where “young people go to retire."      [Italics added.] See article at: New York [...]

grease payments

small payments that are made by a foreign company in some countries to facilitate the initiation of certain services.   The new [British] law, called the Bribery Act, takes effect in April [2011]. It resembles the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act [FCPA], which bars companies that trade on U.S. exchanges from bribing foreign government officials [...]

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