In an economy built on tourism, the city centre's ruined shops, restaurants and hotels made prospects of recovery look bleak.
The open question is whether by limiting their commitment, the NATO allies have also made prospects of a durable peace less certain.
MySpace: After long dismissing the money-making prospects of the internet, Rupert Murdoch finally opened his wallet in 2005 and snapped up MySpace for £580m, which, at the time, was the bright new thing of social networking.
But only four out of every ten online journalists are "very confident" that online news can find a profitable business model for journalism, and are worried about the money-making prospects of internet advertising.
However, on December 30th, the country's Supreme Court threw out his complaints, making his prospects of overturning the "orange revolution" look very thin indeed.
"It will make the prospects of any integration that much easier," he said.
Krugman concluded that "this, from the beginning, made the prospects of the single currency dubious".
Europe has none of these things, which from the beginning made the prospects of a single currency dubious.
"A decade on, these three factors make the prospects of someone buying the entire plant very unlikely.
(Developments with respect to computers subsequent to the publication of Orwell's novel made the prospects of comprehensive control seem even more ominous).
A.I.G. plans an initial offering of the unit should the talks fail, but discord in the markets make the prospects of an I.P.O.
