The trouble with John Major was not just that he was too weak a personality to be an effective PM, but that he also made weak decisions - or did not make decisions at all.
The country has run a deficit continuously for 30 years, but last year's was its biggest yet, driven not only by weak exports but also by rapid growth in consumer spending.
Of course, each of these movies was poorly reviewed, and that may be the main factor in their poor performances, but the weak results also suggest that fantasy-free shoot-em-ups starring older men (many of them Expendables stars) aren't connecting with viewers right now.
But weak demand is also creating harmful deflationary pressures in some countries.
The Fed's beige book, a regular survey of anecdotal data released on January 15th, confirmed that the economy remains weak, but also revealed signs of pick-up in several regions, most notably the industrial north-east.
The research firm now sees PC units up 5% in 2012, down from a previous forecast of 10.1%, reflecting not only the weak economy but also the impact of tight disk-drive supply due to the floods in Thailand.
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In every case, they say they were fleeing not only the drought but also conflict between Somalia's weak government and the al-Shabab Islamist militant group.
But the weak retail story was also in focus.
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Yet no matter who actually placed the trades, this loss not only reflects poor risk management and weak internal controls but could also reveal fraud if it can be established that trading losses were intentionally hidden, as has been alleged (and is subject to investigation by regulatory authorities).
The driver of the train, which collided with wagons carrying cement, was quickly blamed, but broken brakes and a weak engine were also at fault.
Most growth sectors have strong exports--given a boost by the weak greenback--but they also tend to require capital and skilled labor that developing-nation manufacturers can't muster.
But the same absence of outside competition also made them weak and sloppy.
But recovery is also more likely to be delayed if weak firms in overstaffed industries are too slow to shed workers.
SemiLEDs (LEDS) posted a a second quarter loss that was less than analysts had predicted, but also said that the second quarter results will be weak due to oversupply pressuring margins.
Low interest rates can also unleash inflation, but when economic growth is very weak, authorities worry more about deflation.
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The margin compression, decelerating growth and weak guidance are obvious concerns, but many also perceived the new capital plan as a half-hearted attempt to placate angry shareholders.
Structural policy adjustments have played a role in some countries, but the improvement also reflects cyclical effects, in particular the relatively weak cyclical position of many advanced economies and movements in terms of trade.
The number of companies in that predicament tends to swell when economic conditions are weak and credit dries up, but there are also many carriers in countries with unstable economies or political systems who cannot obtain private financing for their aircraft purchases.
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But the survey also found that plans for growth in business investment remained weak.
Despite a slow start, there is now a clear track record of policy action in Spain which encompasses not only fiscal consolidation but also labor market and pension reforms as well as recapitalization of the weak parts of the banking sector.
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Executives at several American banks said they were reluctant to lend not only because of concerns about creditworthiness, but also because of the heavy paperwork involved in government guaranteed loans, their own weak capital bases, and a desire to limit their already considerable holdings of similar loans to other countries.
Ms Harney recently took delivery of a new report on enterprise strategy by a committee chaired by Eoin O'Driscoll, managing director of Aderra, which argues not only for more emphasis on high-value-added sectors and scientific research but also for greater efforts in marketing and promotion, in which Ireland has been weak.
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The Neighbors has clearly emerged as the weak link in the network's Wednesday comedy chain, but last night also suggested the show might be stabilizing since it did not drop this week.
Brisbane has also been weak, with prices off more than 6% this year, but much of the drop stems from the devastation to the capital of Queensland state earlier in the year from a series of floods.
March could yet help turn things around, but if next week's survey of the larger services part of the economy is also weak, there is a distinct possibility that national output will shrink again, in the first three months of this year.
EU's new foreign-policy chief, will also be put in charge of the ten-nation Western European Union, a weak but explicitly military organisation which the larger body is now expected to swallow up, though this raises awkward questions about countries more involved with one than the other.
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But oil prices are also being lifted by "misperceptions, " they say, including the idea that the weak U.S. dollar has been driving up the price of crude.
But paradoxically, should the euro have a troubled birth and prove to be a weak currency, that could also be troublesome: sterling's current strength might then persist, forcing up the relative costs of manufacturing in Britain.
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