The EPA has been forced to slash its 2010 mandate for the most widely touted of the non-corn biofuels, cellulosic ethanol, from 100m gallons to just 6.5m, less than a thousandth of the 11 billion gallons produced from corn in 2009.

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Thus, the Federal Reserve, responding to a dual mandate of fostering full employment and price stability, is forced to act.

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If the individual mandate is struck down or otherwise killed, insurers will be forced either to go out of business or jack up their rates.

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Even though BP is in trouble, most sell-side analysts know the first rule of job preservation is to throw their support behind a beleaguered company in the faint hope that their firm may get a banking mandate if the company is the target of a takeover or is forced to sell itself.

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In this scenario, Mr. Najib will at best be forced to govern from a position of weakness for the next five years, lacking a strong mandate to push through reforms.

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Health insurers fear that if the mandate is struck down but the rest of the law survives, they would be forced to accept millions more sick customers without enough new healthy customers to balance out the risk pool.

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