Furthermore, 70% of respondents said student debt is in the middle or at the top of their personal list of pressing election issues.

FORBES: Dude, Where's My Student Loan Bailout?

The Copenhagen Consensus, a project led by Bjorn Lomborg, a professor at the University of Aarhus, in Denmark, and publicised by this newspaper, made something of a splash a few months ago by ranking climate change at the bottom of a list of pressing global problems (see articles).

ECONOMIST: The debate over global warming is getting rancorous

We ran this story about conquering your email inbox, which recommends a system of prioritizing urgent items, dealing with short requests quickly, deleting junk and putting less pressing matters on a to-do list.

FORBES: 10 Ways to Become Better at Your Job Today

To go beyond simple campaign slogans, canned sound bites and all the other superficial hoopla surrounding a presidential campaign, we prepared a list of several dozen questions on the most pressing issues of our time.

FORBES: Going Beyond The Sound Bites

Peace with Pakistan is all very well, but comes far down the list of priorities for Indian villagers, below more pressing matters such as supplies of clean water and electricity.

ECONOMIST: India's election