In fact, national support of longer-term research has evolved to an assumed national responsibility with the side effect that we are not carefully considering what makes these expenditures good investments for high economic returns.

FORBES: Why The Government Needs To Invest In Innovation

Over the past few years, the dollar has been strong mainly because foreign investors have been happy to finance America's external deficit, thanks to rapid economic growth and high returns, especially in its equity market.

ECONOMIST: The world��s new currency worries

The conventional wisdom is that high taxes on returns to capital are damaging to economic growth taxes on labour income not so much.

FORBES: Certain Lefty Economists Do So Annoy Me

As the returns from economic reforms tend to be slow and the short-term adjustment costs high, the government should have adopted generous social compensatory and adjustment-assistance policies.

ECONOMIST: New Zealand's reforms

They have already bought and sold bonds and stocks until the bonds have high enough expected returns to compensate for the expected risk, and until the current stock prices already reflect our economic problems.

FORBES: WHY OUR PORTFOLIOS DIFFER (Part 2)