We also knew that the underlying rate of growth in the economy was weak to non-existent.
Number one, the main thing to remember about gold is that it has no underlying rate of return.
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The other really deep reason is the underlying rate of economic change.
The underlying rate of inflation, which excludes mortgage-interest costs, rose from 2.7% to 3.0%, well above the government's target for it of 2.5%.
Not only are there fewer young people, but the very decline in their numbers has brought down the underlying rate of youth unemployment.
So, without those two, the underlying rate of growth in this period would be closer to the long-term average of 0.5-to-0.6% a quarter.
Total recorded crime increased at an underlying rate of 2% in 2001-02, with some violent crimes increasing faster: robbery, for instance, rose by 27%.
The fall in the underlying rate is because the timing of last month's Budget meant duty rises were too late to have an effect.
At 2%, the key underlying rate, which is used by the Bank of England when setting interest rates, is well below the government's 2.5% target.
In U.S. economic news, U.S. wholesale prices fell 0.1% in December, though the underlying rate, which excludes food and energy costs, rose a higher-than-expected 0.3%.
Healthcare sales fell at an underlying rate of 1% from a year earlier, while overall lighting sales were flat due to weak demand from the construction sector.
The underlying rate fell below the government's 2.5% target.
The only possible economic justification for Mr Greenspan's views is that the new economy has produced a productivity miracle: a permanent increase in the underlying rate of productivity growth that is capable of being sustained through a downturn.
That further reduces the average credit quality of remaining borrowers underlying floating rate securities.
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The more important underlying inflation rate - which excludes mortgage costs - also moved higher, from 2% to 2.2%.
Underlying the rate worries, bonds -- whose fixed return makes them linked to interest rate and inflation expectations - also weakened.
Remember how we got inflation targets in the first place: we got them because academic opinion suggested that central banks could not really affect the underlying growth rate.
Investors were nonetheless impressed with the company's underlying growth rate.
Evidence from Europe suggests that long spells of high joblessness leave a country's underlying unemployment rate permanently higher, as workers lose skills, becoming detached from the labour force and increasingly hard to re-employ.
The federal government, along with state regulators, will look at whether the rate increase is justified by underlying health spending.
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There are other ways to shrink the gap between Germany's high savings rate and relatively low investment, the underlying reason for its current-account surplus.
While the headline unemployment rate was unchanged in April, the underlying trend is improving, with the number of people in work climbing for the fifth consecutive month to 63.5 million.
This migration is one of the many underlying currents that carried the U.S. unemployment rate to 10% in October 2009.
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Add in the underlying concerns about the Italian economy's feeble growth rate, and investors are understandably worried about the Italian government's ability to shoulder its huge debt.
"Following a combination of an underlying increase in network traffic as well as a high rate of new customer additions, we are aware of capacity issues in a small number of exchanges, " she said.
The entrepreneurship rate in the Kauffman Index and the unemployment rate run in opposite directions because of the countervailing forces underlying entrepreneurial activity.
McKinsey expects this affluent segment to grow at a compound annual rate of 16% between now and 2020, offering underlying support for the global premium car market.
The consensus among professional forecasters is that America's GDP will grow by 2% in 2012, below its underlying speed limit, and far too slow to bring the jobless rate down.
However, if the underlying is nearer the price of the lower strike on the written put then profits will expand at a faster rate as time passes.
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