And to maintain the same amount of productive capital equipment per worker, the economy had to increase the stock of capital one-fifth - an effort that absorbed hundreds of billions of dollars.

Leveraged buyouts, in which management joins with outside investors, have absorbed billions of dollars of "junk bond" financing in recent years.

Even with the changes in Congress's bill, the legislation calls on private plans to absorb tens of billions in reductions in anticipated annual Government payments.

Theoretically the niling effect could absorb billions of kilowatt hours before reaching saturation point.

Doctors would absorb billions in losses in projected income, according to Congressional estimates.

But the appeal is wearing thin for German and Japanese bankers, who have been forced to absorb tens of billions of dollars in the last few months.

The powerful new plague absorbed the complete attention of the scientific establishment and billions of dollars.

Although the Fresh Kills landfill has absorbed billions of New Yorkers' least-wanted items, it occasionally gets their most cherished possessions.

The industry has absorbed billions of dollars in cost overruns and the armed forces have been forced to kill weapons that they still consider essential.

And there is no good reason to believe that the consumer sector could absorb billions of rubles more without active, well-functioning markets to manage the transformation.