pull strings 裏から手を回す、コネを利用するIf one cannot afford to study abroad, a Greek university offers poor quality tuition and, unless one's family can pull strings, few opportunities for getting a job afterwards.

margin calls 追加証拠金、追証As prices fall, the value of the collateral used as security for loans declines as well, provoking margin calls. Holders of securities must sell them at distressed prices to meet the minimum cash or capital req…

backardation 逆転現象（直物価格が先物価格を上回ること）When the idea started to be heavily promoted, around 2002, there was a rationale for it. Commodity futures were selling at discounts from cash, and institutions could pick up additiona…

take a page out of book 本をお手本にする、まねるThat would take a page right out of Goldman Sachs' playbook. Last year, the bank raked in $1.5 billion in buyout-related revenue, tops among Wall Street firms. At the same time, its financial…

speak volumes 多くを語る、His facial expression spoke volumes about what he really thought about your opinions. overqualified 必要以上に教育を受けているLike Italy, Japan produces far too many architecture graduates for all to become buildi…

get to the heart of ~ の核心に迫る、入るDo Mark London and Brian Kelly in The Last Forest get to the heart of the problem? Not in my view. Their account is engaging, sometimes entertaining, but overall superficial, a one-eyed vision of a d…

write-down 評価損、（帳簿価格の）切り下げ、減額On October 24th Merrill Lynch reported its first quarterly loss for six years thanks to huge write-downs by the investment bank of $8.4 billion.

have a rude awakening しまったと気付く、ひどい幻滅を感じる、突然不快な事実に気付くSome of the tycoons who backed Mr Putin, thinking he would safeguard the looted wealth of the 1990s, have had a rude awakening.

represent a break from 〜からの脱却を示すMr. Fukuda, sometimes described as a foreign policy dove who has long emphasized the importance of building strong ties with China and the rest of Asia, represents a break from the nationalist Mr. A…

back taxes 未払いの税金、追徴金 Its most controversial provision, which eventually killed it in the House, would have allowed people who had been in the United States illegally for five or more years to become legal residents if they paid …

引き際、引き時 Unlike Mr Abe, Mr Koizumi timed his departure well.見え透いた言い訳をする make a flimsy excuse forTwo days later he stood down on the flimsiest of excuses: that Ichiro Ozawa, leader of the main opposition Democratic Party of…

All told あれやこれやで、全部足し合わせると、結局、All told, foreign companies often find that investing in Japan involves too much effort for too little profit.

toothless 骨抜きのEven with cases of blatant discrimination, lawsuits remain rare because of a cultural aversion to litigation. Another big problem has been that the equal opportunity law is essentially toothless. Despite two revisions, th…

drabbing 大敗、完敗IT IS the worst ever electoral drubbing for the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), and an emphatic rejection of everything Shinzo Abe, prime minister since last September, seems to represent to Japan’s voters. unwell 体調が…

http://www.nybooks.com/articles/20494 Notes on SusanIt is the aspect of Sontag that is most difficult to take: the longing, or the pretense, to be a witness, a melancholic standing in the ruins of history, despite the circumstances of her …

adjustable rate 変動金利

assault weapon 対人殺傷兵器 handgun 拳銃background check 身元調査、身元確認、素行調査、moment of silence 黙祷の時間 In 1994 President Bill Clinton approved a bill banning assault weapons (covering semi-automatic rifles plus high-capacity m…

The IMF has made perhaps the most valiant attempt so far to weigh these competing explanations.

give ~ a run for one's money 〜が手応えを感じるくらい健闘する、〜を相手に善戦するIndian and Chinese firms are now starting to give their rich-world rivals a run for their money. make one's mark 有名になる、名を成す、頭角を現す、成功する、…

business-as-usual 旧態依然Slowly, however, they lost patience with what they saw as the government's loose ethics and plodding, business-as-usual approach to the urgent challenges of national development.rout 大敗させる、完勝するIn mid-Jul…

be smitten with 〜に夢中になる They were, Prunier writes, "quite smitten with the Tutsi," finding them a "superior race" of people who were "meant to reign," possessed "a refinement of feelings which is rare among primitive people," and ha…

文章を引き締める Constant scrutiny and editing means even the worst articles are gradually getting better, while the best ones are kept nicely polished and up to date. Someone, eventually, will spot even the tiniest error, or tighten a pat…

glaring 目立つ、目に付く、派手なThe notion of an infinitely elastic internet encyclopedia, always up to date and distilling the collective wisdom of the wired is even more tempting. When open to all comers, anonymously, the problems are ev…

fait accompli 既成事実Some Chinese policymakers believe that if confronted with a fait accompli, America would lack the heart for a fight to liberate Taiwan.

to the untutored eye 素人目には、知識のない人にとっては To the untutored ear, the verbal salvoes lobbed across the Taiwan Strait since the weekend might appear to carry with them an alarming rise in tensions over nearly the last bit of unf…

For much of last year the yen slid, but there has recently been a brisk appreciation. A dollar bought over 121 yen on February 23rd, but now buys around 116.

unswervingly 道をそれずに、確固としてWe must free our minds, follow a realistic and practical approach, keep pace with the times, work hard with a pioneering and innovative spirit, unswervingly take the road of Chinese socialism, adhere to…

doomsayer 悲観論者overhang of inventory 過剰在庫 overhang of stocks 余剰在庫

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instant bestseller たちまちベストセラーに