Its strength is its permanent staff of 276 scientists, policy wonks and lawyers.

ECONOMIST: The environmental movement

If so, some of the pound's recent strength may prove permanent.

ECONOMIST: The economy

That is because a permanent magnet's maximum strength is dictated by the material it is made from, while an electromagnet's strength depends on the current passing through it.

ECONOMIST: Maglev trains

The permanent colonists who formed the fighting strength were escapees from a world of restricted social and economic opportunity at home.

ECONOMIST: The medieval crusades

The only alternative policy would be one of permanent partition and garrisoning of a defeated Germany, for which the democracies have neither the strength nor the moral mandate.

ECONOMIST: From the archive