Some Expressions from NY Time 090323

Struggling for its survival, G.M. has said it will completely pull out of Saab by the end of 2009, a course that Ms. Olofsson described as tantamount to declaring "that they wash their hands of Saab and drop it into the laps of the Swedish taxpayers."
=>No reception on the airport means tantamount to declaring our relationship is over.

But the prospect of failure is to awful for Trollhattan's mayor, Gert- Inge Andersseon to even contemplate.
=> contemplate ; if I contemplate an action, it means I think about whether to do it or not.
    I had contemplated flying to GB for meeting her. Eventually I decided to go there by following my own will.

As global demand plumments, the expectations for this year are even more dire.
=> plumment ; If an amount, rate, or price "plumment"s, it decrease quickly by a large amount.
    "Dire" i sused to emphasize how serious or terrible a situation or event is.

But it would reverberate through the rest of the economy, which depends heavily on industrial exports, jeopardizing perhaps tens of thousands of jobs.
=>When a loud sound reverberates through a place, it echoes through it.