As if to confirm this, few of this week's mergers envisage big cost-savings as their main objective (the link-up of two American insurers, Unum and Provident, may be an exception).

ECONOMIST: Most mergers disappoint. So why do firms keep merging?

But helicopters, historically volatile and prone to cost-cutting demands by governments, may be GKN's weak link.

FORBES: Beefing up the rump

Lord Turner insists that restoring the earnings link, despite its cost, is vital in order to arrest the spread of means-testing which discourages saving.

ECONOMIST: Pension reform

In the air, planes will actually be nearer to the orbiting device, rather than farther away, and assuming a line-of-sight link from the road, the truck can work out kinks at a fraction of the cost.

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The link between Sweden's Pharmacia and America's Upjohn in 1995 was supposed to be driven by cost-cutting and matching drug portfolios.

ECONOMIST: After the deal