The major drug makers remain highly profitable, but at some, sales are stagnant and profits are falling, leading to layoffs and cuts in research budgets.
The ubiquitous security agencies have become laws unto themselves, with a stealthy, octopuslike reach that is one of the biggest impediments to democracy.
Perhaps the only thing Wall Street fears more than an earnings surprise is a slowdown in the housing market. After all, the steadily spectacular rise in home values has been the economy's underpinning for some time now.
Investors have had a tough time this year. The S&P 500 is flat despite strong corporate profits. And 401(k)'s? Well, at least there's that tax savings.
The trouble with sitting on billions of dollars in cash--particularly if it has been earned in a way that annoys enough of the voting public--is that you might be hauled up to Capitol Hill to explain what you plan to do with it while also hearing a few choice ideas.
AP - An Iraqi woman confessed on Jordanian state television Sunday that she tried to blow herself up along with her husband during a hotel wedding reception last week, saying that the explosives concealed under her denim dress failed to detonate.
AP - While admitting "we were wrong" about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction, President Bush's national security adviser on Sunday rejected assertions that the president manipulated intelligence and misled the American people.
AP - A 14-year-old girl was missing after her parents were shot to death in their home Sunday morning, and authorities issued an arrest warrant for an 18-year-old believed to be her boyfriend.
An Iraqi woman in Jordanian custody said in a televised confession today that she tried to blow herself up with her husband in an Amman hotel last week, in one of three attacks that killed 57 people. Her husband detonated his explosives belt, but she said hers didn't work. "I tried to detonate mine but I failed," she said.
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