Now I'm not so sure about the scarlet letter signs or the license plates identifying child molesters.

CNN: Commentary: A sex offender's scarlet letter

It seems like any and all stocks related to nuclear energy have been marked with the scarlet letter.

FORBES: Uranium And Nuclear Stocks Feel The Shock Waves Of Fukushima Meltdown

In the former example, you can use anything from the Civil Rights Movement to The Scarlet Letter as evidence, while the latter likely begs more for examples from personal experience or abstract arguments.

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Out of the many things the housing bubble and subsequent financial crisis marked with the scarlet letter, monolines, or bond insurance companies, have become one of the last to finally fall from grace.

FORBES: Left Overs of the Financial Crisis: Last Monoline to Lose AAA-Rating

Hawthorne, most famous for his novels The Scarlet Letter and The House of the Seven Gables, also wrote a short story collection called Mosses from an Old Manse, in which he christened the house.

BBC: An American pilgrimage to Concord

By her last term, Snowe writes that a senator's willingness to reach across the aisle had become a "scarlet letter" instead of badge of honor.

NPR: Snowe Presses For Bipartisanship In New Book

So, if a bank applies for the program and gets rejected, that's like a financial scarlet letter.

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