Years later, in the mid-1980s, with the U.S. once again strong and confident, Malcolm Forbes, my late father, wrote an editorial in these pages suggesting that President Reagan give Richard Nixon a diplomatic assignment dealing with arms control and Russia.

FORBES: These Numbers Don't Figure

Control of the drones and the assignment of packages for delivery would eventually be handled by an automated operating system.

CNN: Road to nowhere: Could drones be the highways of the future?

But while US politicians were arguing over whether to inject more stimulus into the economy, the euro was creaking under the strain of forced austerity, and a new coalition government in the UK was promising to raise taxes and cut spending to get the economy under control - Thomas Herndon's homework assignment wasn't going well.

BBC: News