Such efforts notwithstanding, Josef Schmidhuber, an agronomist at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, argues that Brazil's competitive advantage lies in churning out huge quantities of low-cost bulk commodities.

ECONOMIST: Brazil

Huge crowds were drawn to witness their enormous bulk and experience their "fragrance" - described by many as a cross between excrement and rotting flesh.

BBC: The stink is upon California

Even though Nigeria is such a big oil producer, for instance, its few refineries are so old and inefficient that it now has to import the bulk of its petrol and kerosene, a huge extra cost to business.

ECONOMIST: Nigeria

But the bulk of its millions have been derived from underwriting and floating huge security issues.

FORBES: Flashbacks