graveyard spiral
n.— «You’re talking here about the possibility of a graveyard spiral: increasing rates forcing reductions in purchases.…If the commission today freed the company to go forward with the Midland project, it may have freed the company to commit economic suicide.» —“Consumers Power’s Plan Is Approved For Gas-Fired Project at Midland Plant” by John Bussey Wall Street Journal Oct. 23, 1986. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
It was a dark and stormy night. So begins the long and increasingly convoluted prose of Edwards Bulwer-Lytton’s best-known novel. Today the annual Bulwer-Lytton Contest asks contestants for fanciful first sentences that are similarly...
Imagine telling someone how to get to your home, but without using the name of your street, or any other street within ten miles. Could you do it? We take street names for granted, but these words are useful for far more, like applying for a job or...