As spending on police, prosecutors and prisons has steadily climbed in the past decade, increasing the number of people charged and imprisoned, spending on indigent defence has not kept pace, overwhelming an already hard-pressed system.

ECONOMIST: The criminal law

Five days after a failed launch, the Russian Soyuz rocket system has been pressed back into service.

BBC: Soyuz back in service after failed launch

But unicameralists are hard-pressed to cite specific failures of the bicameral, conference committee system.

ECONOMIST: State legislatures

As it happens, Toyota later announced that it is planning to install as standard equipment a brake override system in which the brake will stop the car even if the accelerator is pressed simultaneously.

FORBES: Jerry Flint, Toyota and Big Feet

Gensler has long pressed for more centralized trading of the products to promote competition and lower the risk to the system.

FORBES: Senate Vote Nears; Wall Street Weighs Meaning of New Rules

If, for example, the costs of inefficiency come to exceed the political and social benefits, or if the world forces Japan to bear the full costs of its still-mercantilist system, and especially if the economy enters a prolonged slump, Tokyo would be hard pressed to rethink the nation's path.

CNN: Misreading Japan