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  Today's Word: profligate

  This week's theme is: Setting a bad example.

profligate  

(adjective, noun)
[PROF-li-git, PROF-li-gayt']

adjective

1. unrestrained by convention or morality: "You can't just live this profligate lifestyle for decades on end."

2. recklessly wasteful; extravagant

noun

3. a recklessly extravagant consumer; squanderer

additional noun form: profligacy
adverb form: profligately

Origin:
Approximately 1647; from Latin, 'profligatus': immoral, ruined, past participle of 'profligare': to cast down, to ruin ('pro-': down, forward + '-fligare,' intensive of 'fligere': to strike).

In action:
"The days of the profligate 'new Russians' of the 1990s, famous for maroon sportcoats, gold chains and crew cuts, are largely over. In their place is a tight-knit aristocracy, more discreet in its appetites and with fortunes hard to imagine. The net worth of the nation's 36 richest men and women, according to Forbes' calculations, is more than $110 billion, or 24 percent of the nation's gross domestic product.

In some cases, the new 'new Russians' are the same people who got rich in the shady privatizations of the 1990s. Most have reached their late 30s and 40s, and they've moved their businesses toward legitimate operations."

Kim Murphy. "The evolution of Russia's nouveau riche," [Now that Moscow is full of billionaires, attitudes are changing.] Los Angeles Times (May 10, 2005).

"Loaded down with goods and livestock, China's home-grown three-wheeled vehicles are a common sight chugging along rural roads. These so-called 'Chinese rural vehicles' (CRVs) are often held up as a triumph of appropriate technology. But now it turns out they have a dirty secret. A new survey reveals that they present a worrying environmental problem because of the amount of fuel they consume and the copious emissions they produce. The CRVs are so profligate that they are largely responsible for driving China's modern thirst for oil.

The rise of private motoring is often blamed for China's growing petroleum habit. 'All we hear about is the proliferation of cars in cities,' says Dan Sperling of the University of California at Davis, who led the team that has analysed CRVs' environmental impact for the first time. 'Everyone forgets about the other 800 million people in rural areas.'"

Mick Hamer. "The filthy truth about diesel 'mules'," New Scientist (May 9, 2005).

"One concern is that, like many oil-rich countries before it, Russia may decide to blow its oil windfall on profligate government spending, risking an unpleasant fiscal and economic crunch when oil prices fall. To guard against that temptation, Russia wisely created a Stabilization Fund last year, a nest egg to protect the budget against drops in the price of oil, following the successful example of Norway. But political pressure is growing to use the rapidly accumulating fund, already worth $28 billion, to boost expenditures. Under the original plan, tax revenues on oil that fetched more than $20 a barrel were funneled into the Stabilization Fund, but in April the Cabinet decided to hike that threshold to $27, releasing an extra $10 billion for the budget this year. 'That may sound very low right now, but if you look back, finding years in which oil prices averaged above $27 is not at all easy,' says William Tompson, senior economist at the Organization for Economic Co-operation & Development in Paris."

Jason Bush. 'Russia: The Curse Of $50 A Barrel,' [Why steep oil prices could prove catastrophic for the country's economy.] Business Week (May 16, 2005).

 
 




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