Over the past generation, northern England has suffered because of the decline of traditional manufacturing and mining industries, and London and the South-East have boomed partly because of the rise of international finance.

ECONOMIST: An England of regions | The

Partly because of privatisation, foreign direct investment should finance perhaps 60% of the current-account deficit.

ECONOMIST: Can Brazil hold the line?

Kaushik Basu, the chief economic adviser to India's finance ministry, suggests that this may be partly because the law treats both bribe-giving and bribe-taking as crimes.

ECONOMIST: A novel way to combat corruption