Barbero says technology is only part of the answer: troops have to be trained to get the full value of counter-IED technology, and detailed intelligence is required to attack enemy networks and finances.

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Bankrupt Lehman has been in talks for over a year with about a dozen big-bank counter-parties about the value of the their claims.

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Which brings us back to the ECB, which rejected interest-rate cuts despite a sharp, counter-inflationary rise in the value of the euro against the dollar and the pound.

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The rising in value part of this equation has always struck me as counter-intuitive.

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And just as every trend generally has a counter trend, the more digital we become, the greater the value of genuine individual connections.

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The counter argument is that the cost of active defense is insignificant compared to the value of the intellectual property and corporate data it helps protect.

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Against which, Nationalist politicians retort that Scotland has been misled for decades about the declining value of the North Sea - and that Scottish-driven economic growth could counter future challenges.

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And witness the split in the stockmarket between blue-chips such as Toyota, whose capitalisation is still three times that of the big three American car makers put together, and small, primarily domestic companies traded on the over-the-counter market, some two-thirds of which are trading for less than the net value of their assets.

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Consumers may cut back on spending now that the main rate of VAT (value-added tax) has returned to 17.5% after 13 months at 15% to counter the recession.

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