America has morphed in his rhetoric from the source of economic evil to the fount of political wisdom.

ECONOMIST: Bagehot

It will be in places like Kandahar city, the country's second-biggest and the main fount of the Taliban, where the strategy will be most severely tested.

ECONOMIST: The surge in Afghanistan

In north-east China lie the archaeological remains of the Koguryo kingdom of 37BC-668AD, the fount of Korean culture and myth.

ECONOMIST: Banyan