But far more crucially, the key assumption that drives its strong conclusions is the mundane fact that a very low interest rate is postulated, with which distant-future benefits and costs are then discounted .

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As a result, it is unlikely that the United States will have fourteen days of actionable warning of a crisis -- a key assumption in the study performed by the Institute for Defense Analysis for Under Secretary of Defense Paul Kaminski.

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The SOA and partnering organizations also conducted research of their own into the crisis, and their findings placed primary blame on the key assumption utilized by both modelers and the banks when they assessed and priced the massive risk that caused the recent crisis.

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That is the assumption that the key ingredient in any business is technology.

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The key distinction has to do with an axiomatic assumption about the nature of wealth creation.

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And while there are surely some legal loopholes to play with (which have been a big part of my assumption that things would work out), the key is that any changes, restructuring, reprofiling, etc. must be done right.

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EPA. Its new director needs to confront the erroneous assumption that more ill-thought-out and costly regulations are the key to achieving better environmental quality.

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Here's the key: When the grantor sets up the trust, the IRSfixes the value of his gift based on the assumption that the trust will earn a modest return--about 7.5%, but the IRS-set rate fluctuates with interest rates.

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