Allan Meltzer, an economics professor and a critic both of bail-outs and many IMF policies, was quick to condemn what he considers a worrying breach of principle by the Bush administration.

ECONOMIST: America to the rescue? | The

The ordination of married men has been rejected (though, for a while, in a blatant breach of the principle, married Anglican priests were admitted to Catholic orders).

ECONOMIST: Between this world and the next

The second principle, says Mr Cameron, should be to keep down the risk of a breach by using as little information as possible to achieve the task in hand.

ECONOMIST: It's best for governments not to know too much