Word: contracts
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Earthquakes alter planetary speed in two ways. Shifting plates rearrange the distribution of the Earth's mass, causing it to bulge imperceptibly in spots it didn't bulge before and contract in others. That rearrangement should further shift the Earth's inclination, or figure axis (the axis around which the Earth's mass is balanced, which is slightly different from the north-south axis around which the Earth rotates) - in the case of the Chile earthquake, by about three inches. The law of conservation of angular momentum, however, requires that even under these exigent circumstances, the Earth's angular momentum...
...issue are the misleading tactics that banks used to lure first-time homebuyers. First-time homebuyers aiming to fulfill the American Dream of owning a home were not irrational in their decision to sign a contract for a home whose mortgage they clearly could not afford. The transaction occurred between the banks and consumers who were both financially dysfunctional, their financial dysfunction stemming from amassing excessive debt and experiencing mortgage aversion. These were, at times, educated people who made poor financial decisions and miscalculated the risks involved...
...fight has spilled over into the labor relations at Ford. That company, the healthiest of the domestic carmakers, has traditionally had the best relations with the UAW. But last fall workers at Ford voted down contract changes aimed at erasing the gap in labor rates that had opened up with key competitors, who got additional concessions as they went through bankruptcy. GM's labor costs after bankruptcy have fallen from $72 per hour to about $50 per hour under pressure from the Treasury. Ford's hover around $55 per hour after recent adjustments, and the gap is a top issue...
...share of the company's 2009 profits. The payments average $250 per employee for each of Ford's 41,000 workers. A year ago, the union might have been willing to discuss dropping the profit-sharing to protect jobs, but this time it stuck to the letter of the contract...
Newt Gingrich included a constitutional amendment to limit politicians to 12 years in both the House and the Senate in his 1994 Contract with America. But it was one plank of the contract that even Gingrich couldn't push through the House: it failed two months into Gingrich's speakership 227 to 204. A constitutional amendment requires a two-thirds majority (at that time 290 votes were needed) plus a two-thirds majority in the Senate and it must be ratified by two-thirds of the states - making any changes to the current system unlikely in the near future...