Watchdogs may be helpless to stop the electronic sale of quack treatments or dodgy investment schemes.

ECONOMIST: A survey of world trade

In the extreme, the policymaker would then be helpless to distinguish between biased and unbiased advisers.

ECONOMIST: Economics Focus: The PC crowd | The

Are we willing to shrug our shoulders and be helpless or do we refuse to put our hard earned investments and savings with such companies that are involved with these acts?

FORBES: We Have it ALL Wrong!

He becomes ever harder to believe in, however fervent he is meant to be in defending the helpless Irene, and the suspicion arises that he might be not so much a rounded character as a card in a game of style.

NEWYORKER: Road Kill

That may be true in some cases, but it can no longer be argued that multimillion-dollar pay necessarily represents an exploitation of helpless corporate boards.

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Cut off from her trust fund (her dad was jailed for running a Ponzi scheme), Caroline seems helpless at first, but her entitlement turns out to be a kind of superpower she believes that she and Max deserve a better life.

NEWYORKER: Crass Warfare

The front of the castle is lined with a moat, and the counterattack will be an easy matter if they blow the bridge and your men stand helpless staring at the statue of Walt as they are taken out one by one.

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Against a process driven by lobbyists, money, and unprincipled legislators willing to be influenced by both, the typical voter is completely rational in feeling unempowered and helpless.

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