"afford itself" is a correct and usable phrase in written English.
It is often used in formal or academic writing. Example: "The government must carefully consider the economic implications of this policy, as it cannot afford itself the luxury of making hasty decisions."
Although the company might afford itself a brief look backwards, it feels as though there is little room for nostalgia in book publishing now, as the industry turns its face firmly – and apprehensively – to the future.
When a company goes public, it is (generally) accepted that the firm will price its shares as high as it can to maximize its capital intake and still afford itself some breathing room for first-day gains.
For how much longer can Europe afford itself the luxury of watching Egypt destabilize?
By the host maintaining a Taxol-producing endophyte, even at a metabolic cost to itself in the short-term, it may afford itself long-term protection against systemic infection in situations where it can no longer produce the Taxol fungicide – a temporal form of symbiosis.
Asymmetric autocatalysis proceeded quantitatively (>99% yield), affording itself as a near enantiomerically pure (>99.5% ee) product.
And even with the long runway, the company afforded itself being tied to the man who invented Android, it's hard to imagine investors being thrilled by this sort of estimate.
So the really big irony of Rudd's comments is that the government has already afforded itself swingeing investigatory powers — even including the ability to require companies to decrypt data, limit the use of end-to-end encryption and backdoor services on warranted request.
Labour can afford to give itself a pat on the back, notably for doing much better in the South than it did in last year's local elections, a necessary pre-condition for general election victory.
Equally, one clinician's "outpatient consultation" (a common measure of workload) cannot meaningfully be compared with another's given the absence in quality control that regular supervision affords, itself often entirely absent.
But what Yahoo! has going for it is that, as the number one portal company, it can afford to shop itself around a little now and dangle itself in front of potential partners".
Only a wealthy Japan can afford to defend itself.
