The Dow Jones industrial average rose 103.16 points, or 0.8 percent, to 12,908.70 on Wednesday, a strong showing for what has been a mediocre July.
But in Europe, at least, no one these days expects the values of mediocre properties to rise without efforts to improve them physically or manage them better, said James Wallace, who writes a trade blog on European debt for the CoStar Group, a research company in Washington.
Mediocre growth and rising costs, most wonks agree, will put a simple choice before governments: impose large tax rises, dismantle state support for those who genuinely need it or launch a sustained attack on universalism.
This follows several years of mediocre growth and rising poverty in many countries.
I read mostly sports novels, and my favorites were about mediocre athletes who rose up at the crucial moment to win the game.
Perhaps it felt desperate: its investment-banking business has been poor; with Paribas and SocGen on board it might rise to mediocre.
Yet, the security derived from enormous state subsidies, combined with the vast output of work, tended to give rise to mediocre standards.
We will need to be in our seats at 6 45 p.m. Are there any informal places near there that rise above mediocre?
The culprit seems to be its mediocre subscription outlook, the rising challenge of Amazon and the fear that HBO could get into the Web-only subscription market.
Like some of her contemporaries who achieved greatness, she rose above mediocre or even bad material and delivered performances that ranged from elegant and understated to bold and breathtaking.
