To bring the books back towards balance, Mr Stoiber is pinning his hopes mainly on faster economic growth, helped by his labour-market initiatives, which he says could create between 700, 000 and 800, 000 jobs.

ECONOMIST: The right's Edmund Stoiber launches a chunky manifesto

But mainly by exploiting the basic rule of yacht design: The longer the boat, the faster it can go.

FORBES: Mine's Lighter

Since then a few more yachts have joined the speed club, mainly by exploiting the basic rule of yacht design: The longer the boat, the faster it can go.

FORBES: Mine's Lighter

This, Dr Levoy explains, is mainly down to the processing power of devices, such as camera-equipped smartphones, growing faster than the capacity of sensors which record light data.

ECONOMIST: Monitor

Though they have risen faster of late, prices in Britain are still lower than on the continent, where inefficient and mainly monopolistic firms dictate terms to long-suffering customers.

ECONOMIST: A liberalised market is put to the test