The economy was floundering, and demand for a 27-year-old Albany has-been was predictably weak.

The economies of various trade partners are also floundering, they noted, making it unlikely that these countries will buy more American goods.

That is not to say that their economies are floundering, Mr. Ehrenhalt said.

A new class of super-rich industrial barons emerged, but the bulk of the population struggled in penury as the economy floundered.

Today, the economy is floundering, tax revenues have declined and the deficit has mushroomed.

The economy is still floundering.

"Obviously the economy is floundering," Mr. Glassman acknowledged, "but we have not yet spent half the government money that has been appropriated."

The reason is simple enough: European economies are floundering, with growth rates close to zero in most major countries.

But hard times followed; American Thread moved to North Carolina in 1985 and without it, the town's economy floundered.

During his presidency, from 1985 to 1990, corruption reached new heights and the economy floundered under hyperinflation, but he now casts himself as a remade reformer.