At the end of those 15 years the compounded interest will have driven customer costs to 31.3 cents per kWh, about four times what they are paying now.

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Reverse mortgage consumers struggle to understand how interest gets compounded on a loan that does not involve monthly payments on interest and principal.

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But at the time of final modification, my happiness was beset by the realization that they had added massive compounded arrearage, interest and whatnot to the end of my loan.

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Emerging economies compounded their misery by raising interest rates, rather than cutting them, once disaster struck.

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Ferrovial's shares have lagged the Madrid stockmarket since the deal, as worries about its level of gearing in a world of rising interest rates are compounded by the reputational risk of running the world's most-loathed airport.

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If, instead, he had taken the dividends in cash, paid the taxes, and invested the rest in plain vanilla Series E U.S. Savings Bonds that were popular at the time which guaranteed a minimum annual interest of 4 percent, compounded semi-annually, tax-free the end result would have much different.

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The last point I want to make about juggling return assumptions is that problems have more than likely been compounded by administrators moving incrementally out of low interest return investments and upping allocations to equities (with dire consequences over the past 12 years), extending maturities (which increases risk), and cozying up to the low end of the investment grade spectrum.

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Interest on the Seller Notes will be compounded semi-annually and will be payable in cash or in kind, at the election of the Purchaser, until the fifth anniversary of the Closing and in cash thereafter.

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