The auto industry has steadily resisted government-mandated increases in fuel economy, with some carmakers arguing that such requirements would divert investment from fuel-cell research.

The effect, however, was to divert investment from multifamily housing and home construction or renovation in the inner cities, speeding a middle-class exodus to the suburbs and into common-interest housing.

The worry is that the agreement will divert investment and jobs from the United States to Mexico as American manufacturers are drawn to magnet of low Mexican wages.

The report said that Western protectionism as well as African and Latin American debt troubles would also divert investment to the West and stifle growth in poorer regions.

Nationally, new stadiums hurt the economy by diverting investment from more productive enterprises.

You restate the common economic belief that deficits "bring high interest rates and divert investment from its most productive uses."

The government's encouragement of industrial growth diverted investment from agriculture, and agricultural production fell dramatically.

Corruption also generates economic distortions in the public sector by diverting public investment into capital projects where bribes and kickbacks are more plentiful.

And that brings me to the second reason why the stability of the currency is so important: inflation diverts investment, sends it in the wrong directions - unproductive directions.

And he proposed diverting some of the gasoline tax from its present purpose, reducing the deficit, to a new function, making payments on state and municipal bonds that finance public investment.