ZIFF, Paul (1920-2003)
American bourgeois philosopher of the analytic or
“linguistic” school. Did significant work in the areas
of semantics and aesthetics. His most important book was Semantic
Analysis (1960). In the last chapter of that work he explains in careful detail why the
meaning of the important word ‘good’ should be considered to be “answering
to certain interests”.
See also:
Philosophical doggerel about Ziff.
ZEN or ZEN BUDDHISM
[To be added...]
ZENO of Elea (fl. c. 450 BCE)
[To be added...]
See also:
Philosophical doggerel about
Zeno.
ZOMBIE
A term rapidly spreading in use in the U.S. in late 2008 and early 2009 for a company
or bank which is one of the “living dead”, i.e., a company which is either already
insolvent, or else which will soon become so, and which will
therefore go bankrupt before long. (See also below.)
ZOMBIE BANK
A bank that for the time being appears to be healthy and operating normally, but which is
actually insolvent, and which will eventually collapse (and
either go bankrupt or be bailed out by the government). ‘Insolvent’ means having liabilities
greater than the reasonable market value of the assets held. But the trouble is that 1) the
real market value of assets in turbulent economic times is difficult to determine, and 2)
the real market value of assets can rapidly drop when the asset
bubble of which they are a part suddenly pops. This is what has been happening to banks
and other financial institutions since the sub-prime mortgage housing bubble began to pop in
late 2007.
Although only 25 banks failed in the U.S. in
2008, and in the first 5 weeks of 2009 only another 9 banks failed, in February 2009 an
expert in this sphere estimated that as many as 1,000 more banks may fail over the next 3 to
5 years. (And even that number may prove sanguine!) Thus at present there are a great many,
and actually a rapidly growing number of zombie banks in the U.S. and around the
world.
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