Given this backdrop, it's perhaps not surprising that a book arguing that the crisis was a rerun, and not a wholly novel catastrophe, managed to become a best seller.
Given this backdrop, it is no wonder that endless questions from the world's press about whether the buses are running on time or about queues in the canteen are often greeted with a shrug.
Given that backdrop, it will have been the easiest decision in the world for the FSA's successors – the Financial Conduct Authority and the Prudential Regulation Authority – to decide that, yes, they will begin investigations into "certain former HBOS senior managers".
Given this backdrop, it's not hard to imagine that a majority of the people in the U.S. could be "banking" with startups, in one form or another, in the next three to five years.
And, if the Republican Party wins the election in November, this plan will give it a splendid backdrop for next year's commemoration of the 150th anniversary of its great founder's Emancipation Proclamation.
Seen in this light, terrorism plays a sacramental role, dramatizing a religious conflict by giving it an apocalyptic backdrop.
It was a startling digression, given the backdrop.
It was against city practice but hardly, given the backdrop of September 11th, un-American.
It would make a lot of sense, given the backdrop I just described, to be much more proactive with the recruiting and training of females in these markets.
