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Business
Words in the News
Friday 07 February 2003
Vocabulary from the business news. Listen to and read the report
then find explanations of difficult words below.
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Top economists attack Bush's tax plan
Summary: Fourteen top economists have signed a statement criticising
President Bush's proposed tax cuts - ten of them are Nobel prize winners.
The economists say lowering taxes will worsen government finances
and generate more inequality in the US. This report from the BBC's
Economics Correspondent Andrew Walker.
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The
News 
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There are fourteen signatories to the statement, ten of them Nobel prize winners, including the former World Bank chief economist Joseph Stiglitz who made a name for himself criticising the International Monetary Fund. The most pointed criticism is that the proposed tax cuts won't do what they are meant to do - to provide a boost to the economy which is recovering rather erratically after a recession in 2001.
In particular the economists say that the proposed abolition of taxes on the dividends that companies pay their shareholders is not credible as a short term stimulus. They also say that the tax cuts will worsen the long term budget outlook and add to the nation's chronic budget deficits. That in turn will reduce the country's capacity to invest in schools health and infrastructure. The cuts would also generate further inequalities in post tax income, they say.
Andrew Walker, BBC Economics Correspondent
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The
Words
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made a name for himself
became very well known
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what they are meant to do
what is intended
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boost
encouragement
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erratically
if something recovers erratically, progress is not regular
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abolition
ending
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dividends
income paid regularly to investors
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credible
sensible and effective
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stimulus
a stimulus helps something to happen more quickly
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deficits
if a country spends more than it earns, that extra amount is a deficit
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post tax income
the amount you have to spend, after you have paid taxes
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Read
more about this story |
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