While some clients resisted using associate lawyers during the downturn, refusing to pay hundreds of dollars an hour for inexperienced first- or second-year attorneys, the largest U.S. law firms have managed to send the needle back up again.

WSJ: Law Firms Raise Rates, but Ease Blow With Discounts

S. economy that show the needle ticking up instead of back down.

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Once I started accelerating again, the needle sprang up as the engine quietly came back to life.

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It dates back to 2004, when American Needle, an Illinois-based hat maker, brought an antitrust case against NFL, claiming the league was using its monopoly power to muscle it out of its fair share of revenue for caps it made bearing NFL logos.

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Regardless of how many times your managers ask you to "circle back, " or "move the needle forward, " take a stance against painful business jargon.

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All of these choices have moved the chronically high unemployment needle exactly the opposite direction at a time when Americans are desperate to get back to work and get their families back on firmer financial footing.

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The concept of burning away tumors with electric current dates back a century, but it took modern imaging machines to make through-the-needle tumor-burning accurate enough to be safe and practical.

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