That, indeed, was a central cause of the crisis.
Such mortgages have been a central cause of the current market problems.
Crack was a central cause of crime in the 1980's.
But Sylvia and others see the deadening of teaching itself as a central cause.
Drugs, he ventured, had become the central cause for violence, with brawls erupting frequently.
These people continue, against the evidence, to consider them the central cause of the financial crisis.
If the plan works, it will attack the central cause of American economic distress: the continued plunge in housing prices.
Such an approach requires that "causes be ranked hierarchically" so as to identify a single, central cause.
Mr. Obama has said that "service will be a central cause of his presidency," Mr. Khazei said.
A number of academic energy analysts, and FirstEnergy itself, have contended that a lack of reactive power was a central cause of the blackout.
I disagree with former Senator Bill Bradley's hypothesis regarding the central cause of the Democratic Party's "inversion" ("A Party Inverted," Op-Ed, March 30).
