Interest rates can be lowered to zero and money can be printed ad nauseum, but if excessive debt within the system is restraining private demand, the decline in the velocity of money will offset the benefit of the additional supply of dollars.

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Concentration is improved when people's senses are aroused, says Dr Linnell, but if this becomes excessive it seems to have the opposite effect and reduces the ability to focus on a single task.

BBC: City living 'makes it harder to concentrate'

But even if macro concerns of excessive investor pessimism keep a lid on stock prices in the months ahead, dividend paying stocks offer respectable cash payouts that are close to as safe as bond yields.

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But if the Fed was ever really serious about unwinding excessive leverage, the time had clearly arrived.

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It was the equivalent of the cops breaking down your door at 6am: perfectly legitimate if you have the legal right to do so, but it can seem excessive.

BBC: Cypriot bank worker with placard

The biggest supply-side obstacle to future growth may no longer be (if it ever was) excessive regulation or inflexible labour markets, but a corporate culture that finds it easy to tolerate low returns and difficult to tolerate outright failure.

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The firms said the policy isn't new, but the disclosure shows the companies won't just go after the excessive risk-takers if bad trades hurt the firms' profits.

WSJ: Goldman, Morgan Stanley Clarify Clawback Policies

But Lamberts says he is not "overly concerned" if the banker flight rids the European financial sector of excessive risk and circumvention of banking regulation.

CNN: European lawmakers defend decision to cap banker bonuses