All I kept thinking about was that story, and how he worked that damned deal over and over, even after we thought we had everything set.

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Just about everything looks simple, even inevitable, after the fact.

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More subtly, global exchanges disagree about the value they put on everything from food companies to banks, even after taking account of differences in a firm's local prospects.

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After four years they found out that everything about the programme had been a scam (even though the institute was real), and that the man behind the scheme had vanished.

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But even after they pass, the bosses of legal firms note that new hires still need to be taught nearly everything about actual practice on the job.

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So, for many of you, even as you found your paychecks shrinking, even as after the crisis you found the value of your biggest asset, your home, falling, the cost of everything else has gone up: the cost of groceries, the cost of sending your kids to college, costs of retirement.

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