PARASTATAL

[Dr. Goodword]

• parastatal •

Pronunciation: pe-rê-stayt-êl • Hear it!

Part of Speech: Adjective, Noun

Meaning: 1. [Adjective] Owned wholly or in part by the government. 2. [Noun] An business or agency owned wholly or in part by the government.

Notes: We thought today's word might come in handy as the US Federal Government puts together a parastatal to run the AIG insurance firm and the Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac loan companies. Parastatal was originally the adjective for parastate, a partly state-run industry or a semiautonomous political region. Since then the adjective has taken over the sense of the noun it is derived from.

In Play: Congress formed a government-owned parastatal agency called the Resolution Trust Corporation in 1989 to rescue the failing savings and loan banks. Now Congress has decided to create a similar parastatal to bail out Wall Street financial institutions. Stay tuned this week for the details of this organization.

Word History: Today's Good Word comprises the prefix para- "beside, near" + state + -al, adjective suffix. English borrowed the prefix from Greek where it meant "beside". The same root became Latin per "through" which English also borrowed. In English it became for, in French pour, and in Spanish and Portuguese por. State comes from Latin status "state, standing, condition", a word English also borrowed. State is Latin status after centuries of French tampering. (A. Pierre has left us in a state of deep gratitude for suggesting we discuss this very topical Good Word.)

[engineer27]

• parastatal •
Now Congress has decided to create a similar parastatal to bail out Wall Street financial institutions.

In this context, this word could be mistaken for peristaltic, which has to do with digestion, as in "the peristaltic agency responsible for swallowing up failed institutions."

[Stargzer]

The RTC is STILL handling assets from the S&L crisis!

[Perry]

Parastatal: When the government takes over ownership of a parasite.

[Slava]

To expand on engineer27's comment, the situation makes me feel sick, as in reverse peristalsis!

Regurgitate, regurgitate!
Give back all the food you ate!

Fie! A pox upon the parasites! (I'd say upon their houses, but those are probably already gone.)

[Stargzer]

...Fie! A pox upon the parasites! (I'd say upon their houses, but those are probably already gone.)

No, the houses of all the CEOs and CFOs and C-whatevers who escaped in golden parachutes of egregiously large size are not in danger. They made housing loans to people they knew couldn't possibly pay them.

If we, the taxpayers, end up taking over their mess, the Government should sue them all in civil court for misfeasance in office. Their services weren't worth the paper their paychecks and stock options were written on, and they don't deserve a dime of what they got.

[Slava]

...Fie! A pox upon the parasites! (I'd say upon their houses, but those are probably already gone.)

No, the houses of all the CEOs and CFOs and C-whatevers who escaped in golden parachutes of egregiously large size are not in danger.

I should have been clearer, though I didn't want to make a really long parenthetical excursus.

What I meant was their houses of banking, as banks are sometimes referred to as houses. Those have been snatched up by other bigwigs.

[Cacasenno]

To expand on engineer27's comment, the situation makes me feel sick, as in reverse peristalsis!

Regurgitate, regurgitate!
Give back all the food you ate!

Well, Slava, you have anticipated my elaborated recollection:

Chinese reverse peristalsis

My travel partner and I were in China, well off the track then followed by the rare foreigners visiting that country during the ‘70s.
As VFPs (very foreign persons) we were offered the very best the little (about 2 million inhabitants only) Chinese village could offer.
A special party was organized for us and, in order to please our tastes, a local old cook was called back on duty. This cook, whom had had some experience with Westerners during the pre WWII Concessions period, selected to prepare an imperial number of fish and sea food dishes cooked and served western style.
My partner was particularly found of one “fish” and had several helpings of it.
“What’s the name of this fish”, he asked me between bites.
“Holothurian You re eating holothurians”, was my reply.
Next morning, during our flight back to Beijing, my partner recalled the meal.
“Delicious! What was that fish again?”
“It is not a fish, not a vertebrate, you know. Name of holothurian”.
“Very tasty, just the same. Do we have it in the Med?”.
“Yes, not appreciated as it should but yes. You might have heard of it by the name sea cucumber ”.
Later in the evening -that is, some 30 hours after our party- my usually very squeamish
friend resumed the subject.
“You know, before we leave China, we should try to find a place here in Beijing were we could taste again the whatyoucallit. Strange though, I am familiar with all kind of marine food and I have been spending all my vacations by the sea side but I have never heard of sea cucumbers….”.
“Well”, I finally disclosed, “it is better known with the vulgar name sea penis “
My partner istantly turned pale and started enacting some kind of a belly dance till the holothurias that were about to complete their colon journey returned to see light through the original entry orifice.

As of today, the event is still recognized as the greatest case of reverse peristalsis ever registered in the annals of China.

[Cacasenno]

Parastatalism

please read here and fear:

http://www.russellsage.org/publications ... y/document )