In some ways, the times cry out for more active government: for stronger regulation of banks and near-banks, for much more short-term government spending to counteract the contraction elsewhere in the economy, and for the establishment of a basic health-care system for everyone.

ECONOMIST: The 44th president

You are the first writer I have seen who has grasped the seminal point that the dysfunctions in the current health care system are expressions of basic structural errors in their design, not intrinsic failings of capitalism or some such.

FORBES: There Is No Conservative Case For ObamaCare

The most daring strategy would be for Mr Bush to lay out an ambitious policy for the second term centred on a fundamental reform of America's entitlement programmes (principally Social Security and Medicare, the federally funded systems that provide, respectively, pensions and health care for the elderly) or basic changes to the tax system.

ECONOMIST: Why George Bush needs to be careful, rather than daring

But providing due process to all citizens through an effective judicial system with guaranteed representation is certainly a more expensive proposition than providing basic health care or public education.

ECONOMIST: Human rights and wrongs

If we are going to tackle health care for millions of people across Africa we must first tackle the most basic elements of any health system: logistics, maintenance, local skills and communications.

FORBES: Let's Finally Get the Fundamentals of Healthcare in Place in Africa