The fact that employer-provided insurance is untaxed blunts employers' incentives to control costs.

ECONOMIST: Business is right to be scared by the costs of Obamacare

This not only blunts Mr McCain's most powerful criticism of Mr Obama.

ECONOMIST: Lexington: The woman from nowhere | The

Although German industrialists and economists now fret that too much harmony boosts wages and blunts competitiveness, the two main parties seem convinced that their electoral fortunes depend on staying with the familiar system.

ECONOMIST: Germany

It blunts Romney's offensive against red tape.

BBC: JPMorgan losses a headache for Romney?

The deal between Microsoft, the Justice Department and state attorneys general blunts what Google Chief Executive Eric Schmidt may have feared could evolve into a thrust by Microsoft into its lucrative business of selling ads against online search results.

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Sierra Mist, a new caffeine-free lemon-lime soda that competes with Coca-Cola's Sprite and Cadbury Schweppes' 7up, doesn't exactly make soda into a nutritional beverage, but it blunts one long-standing criticism of Mountain Dew and cola drinks: that they use caffeine as a hook.

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