escalate.01

frames

• [_ARG1 Fears that Japanese investors are buying up America] have [_rel escalated] [_ARGM-MNR sharply] [_ARGM-TMP in the past several weeks] , [_ARGM-ADV with Sony Corp. 's purchase of Columbia Pictures Entertainment Inc. from Coca-Cola Co. and Mitsubishi Estate Co. 's acquisition of a 51 % holding in Rockefeller Group , the owner of some of midtown Manhattan 's most exclusive real estate] .
• Analysts said 0 they expect [_ARG0 McCaw] to [_rel escalate] [_ARG1 the bidding] [_ARGM-TMP again] .
• reminiscent of those during the 1987 crash -- that as stock prices plummeted and [_ARG1 trading activity] [_rel escalated] , some phone calls to market makers in over-the-counter stocks went unanswered .