There are clear limits of how close you can physically place elements on a touch screen before users cannot reliably tap, flick or pinch them.

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But plummeting home prices affect property-tax revenue as values are reassessed, which will pinch local governments that rely on them.

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In their different ways, the essays in these collections manage to pinch their subjects pretty hard, though at their best they leave them alive and kicking in the reader's mind.

ECONOMIST: Small but perfectly formed | The