The report suggests that many countries will find it difficult to contain the costs of population ageing by making mandatory pensions less generous.

ECONOMIST: Ageing and public finances

Melissa Nobles, a political scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who specialises in apologology (our word), says that they can give official backing to a particular view of history, help contain political grievances peacefully and encourage public-spiritedness among alienated parts of the population.

ECONOMIST: Who should apologise to whom, for what and how?

The eight inland West states now contain six of the top ten fastest-growing states by job creation and population, and five of the ten states with the highest personal-income gains.

ECONOMIST: A new Republican heartland

Worse, though its presence in the countryside is supposed to protect and reassure civilians, in reality it has done little to contain rural violence, and in many areas it has aroused the fear and hostility of the local population.

ECONOMIST: Thank you, general, you��re dismissed