But this gap is bound to grow as American firms harvest the economies of scale from their recent mergers.

ECONOMIST: A shrinking arms market

They harvest American crops, build American houses and baby-sit American children, but often cannot get driving licences or social benefits.

ECONOMIST: The Hispanicisation of America

If Mexico were to liberalise its peyote laws, or if the Native American Church were to buy land and harvest its own peyote, America's seven licensed peyoteros could suffer from falling prices.

ECONOMIST: Semi-legal drugs

American maize farmers are anxious about this autumn's harvest, according to Ms Watkins.

ECONOMIST: Food for thought | The

One problem with eradication operations such as the one in Uruzgan is that they tend to set up confrontations between armed men and poor farmers: the only American a farmer ever meets might be the one who is destroying his harvest, rather than someone who is building a school or a clinic.

NEWYORKER: The Taliban��s Opium War

Already weakened by sickness and malnutrition, the Pilgrims with the help of this wonderful Native American struggled through the spring and summer to make it to their first successful corn harvest.

FORBES: Giving Thanks