But health care may prove to be a short-term curse rather than a blessing.

CNN: 1 year in: Will fortune smile on Obama?

Like the European Union, which approved its own reforms in April, the Americans stop short of blessing a particular way of paying for ratings.

ECONOMIST: Reforming finance: Rating agencies

But that may not be such a blessing for companies in the short term.

ECONOMIST: Buttonwood: A gap in the hedge | The

But in the case of NASA, which struggles to maintain funding for long-term projects because of short-term political juggling, it is a mixed blessing.

ECONOMIST: Space

Democracy is now Indonesia's long-run blessing and short-term curse as President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, a year into his five-year term, struggles to trigger the economic growth that will salvage his populous country and, in the meantime, his own political skin.

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