By now, however, the economy has slow-down and the market has discounted the prospect of expiring drugs.

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New Zealand, which has introduced its own carbon price, has welcomed the prospect of a trans-Tasman carbon market.

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That's where LFL's new owners come in, getting into the growing market of litigation funding - that is, raising risk capital with the prospect of a big share of eventual pay-outs.

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His target audience includes professional services firms in law, accounting, market research and real-estate, hoping that LinkedIn can help their partners prospect for clients, as well as banks, pharmaceutical companies and medical-device makers that see LinkedIn as a way of developing better sales contacts.

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Next-generation e-readers and tablets have spurred interest in the prospect of a paperless magazine market.

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The prospect of a sweeping trade-protection bill in the fall of 1929 triggered the stock market crash.

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In the U.K. market, Wal-Mart's Asda supermarket chain has been facing increasing competition, as well as the prospect of being prosecuted for its refusal to recognize unions.

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The fear is that Chinese exports would "soon overwhelm the worldwide clothing market, " as the Washington Post put it, has been ratcheted up by the imminent prospect of decades-old international trade agreements ending at the end of the year.

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Firms like Bertelsmann , which was happy to enter the U.S. media market by acquiring Random House , apparently are less happy at the prospect of facing aggressive, U.S.-style competition on their home turf.

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