In principle globalisation can help to stabilise economies if they are at different stages of the cycle, but the very forces of global integration are likely to synchronise economic cycles more closely, so that downturns in different countries are more likely to reinforce one another.

ECONOMIST: The unfinished recession

"If the British cannot support the trend towards more integration in Europe, we can nevertheless remain friends, but on a different basis, " the French former minister told the German business daily Handelsblatt.

BBC: EU federalists: UK could be 'associate member'

We encourage the integration of the different ethnic groups to increase the common ground among them but we also respect each community's wish to keep its own space where it can practise its own religion and customs.

ECONOMIST: America's imbalance

This is good for shuffling patients from one department to the next in a flexible way, but it means that hospitals lack the tight integration that allows them to address adequately the different needs of individual patients.

FORBES: How to Heal the Health Care System