Although the rich may not notice the difference, the middle-class and poor pay the price.

FORBES: Taxpayers Should Be Leery Of Warren Buffett's Faux Noblesse Oblige

The firm blames its bankruptcy on onerous labour contracts, under which it says pilots earn 49% more than their counterparts at big American airlines although America is a rich country and Mexico is not.

ECONOMIST: Mexican airlines

It frets about cross-subsidies, saying that the burden of fees for exceeding credit limits falls on the young and the poor, who are in effect padding the accounts of the rich (and, although it does not say so, the careful).

ECONOMIST: Consumer banking

And although Mr Obama still has his tax-the-rich moments, he knows he will not be re-elected by lurching too far left.

ECONOMIST: Lexington