Ms. BRIGNONE: It would put us in a big crunch because we are basically covering the money for the state.
At the moment astrophysicists are trying to figure out whether the universe will collapse in a big crunch, expand at just the right rate to avoid collapse, or expand very rapidly.
While many emerging markets are seen as able to counter some effects of slowing economic growth by lowering interest rates or with fiscal stimulus, a European credit crunch could still have a meaningful impact because European banks had been big lenders in the developing world.
Even optimists think that with a huge fiscal crunch looming and all three big political parties engaged in bouts of cost-cutting one-upmanship, Mr Johnson will have to battle to extract any cash at all from Whitehall.
But just as most big oil sands projects get going, a serious labor crunch will hit, as construction jobs open for the 2010 Winter Olympics in nearby Vancouver.
In contrast to the 1990s, when many blue-chip firms went on a spending binge, big firms were generally in decent financial shape going into the crunch.
Spreads between what they are now willing to pay for the riskiest bonds--many of which are being sold to finance big buyouts--and Treasurys have widened sharply on concerns about a broad credit crunch.
Ms Whitney argues that small-business owners big users of credit cards and home-equity lines face a severe credit crunch as these crutches get yanked away.
Big banks in general have survived remarkably well since the onset last year of a credit crunch, and have continued to make new loans to cash-strapped companies.
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So far its only big concession to the crunch has been to cancel previous plans to increase production to 450 planes a year.
And big studios and independent outfits are sharply trimming their film output in response to the credit crunch and a faltering DVD market.
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