The government is at last giving some thought to tightening South Africa's gun laws, which are among the world's laxest.

ECONOMIST: South Africa

But joblessness would have risen twice as much in the country with the strictest employment-protection laws as in the one with the laxest.

ECONOMIST: A shocking error

Arizona already has some of the laxest gun laws in America, allowing guns in bars, for example, as long as the person carrying them is not drinking.

ECONOMIST: America is plunged into mourning and political acrimony

If Mr Sarbanes's proposal becomes law, without too many concessions along the way, America may find that it has gone from having one of the world's laxest systems of audit regulation to having one of the most rigorous.

ECONOMIST: Auditors