Perhaps the best evidence so far of the competitive decline is DC United.
The end of Gehrig's record streak of 2,130 straight games came on May 2, but the explanation in The Times the next day was that Gehrig had "recognized his competitive decline" and that his withdrawal from the lineup "does not necessarily mean the end of his playing career".
Putting aside the matter of competitive decline, though, what does the increasing scarcity of springboards and of opportunities for young Americans to display their talents for contortion and water displacement, as well as for freaking out their mothers and annoying lap swimmers augur for American pool culture?
The Federal Trade Commission, which has consumer-protection authority and the power to ensure that markets are competitive, declined to comment "on specific companies or conduct".
That pushed up unit-wage costs relative to those in the rest of the euro area (notably super-competitive Germany) and cost competitiveness declined steadily (see chart 3).
The company, citing competitive reasons, declined to say when it made its decision to create new package labels.
"We don't see the competitive pressures declining, so the notion of being able to cut costs and get quality is only going to grow," said Vivek Paul, the chief executive of the software company Wipro Technologies.
Having previously affirmed, year after year, that the industry was "effectively competitive", it declined to do so, though it made no specific recommendations on how to improve matters.Wrapped in the flagAll this explains why AT&T has been doing its best to drape its deal in the Stars and Stripes.
The heart of the problem is that the division between factual news reporting and opinion, always insecure, has become increasingly merged as newspapers pursue political agendas and seek to draw attention to themselves in a hyper-competitive but declining market.
At the most competitive levels, the decline was even greater, with 1,363 children this year scoring in the 99th percentile, the highest level, compared with 2,144 a year ago, the department said.
The equilibrium drachma rate would make Greek workers internationally competitive, producing a decline in living standards between the 18 percent needed to match Portugal's and the 50 percent to reach Bulgarian levels.
