Much of this good news is already baked into the share price of Manchester United, whose investors include George Soros, but it suggests that European football teams will have a better chance of earning sustainable profits.

ECONOMIST: Do sports and stockmarkets mix?

The governor of the Bank of England, Sir Edward George, has also suggested that house price rises are set to cool.

BBC: House prices 'to rise 12% in 2003'

Or to put it another way, George Osborne has a choice of three numbers for the price he would need to receive for RBS shares to prevent a loss for taxpayers, 407p, 440p and 502p.

BBC: RBS can be privatised within a year, says the bank's chairman - BBC News

What Sir Philip and his chief executive, Stephen Hester, can't control is what happens to RBS's share price - which will have a big bearing on whether the Chancellor, George Osborne, wants to start the privatisation.

BBC: Business

"That's nuts, " said Toan to his chief financial officer, George Paz, as he watched his company's stock price jump 40% on news that Express Scripts planned to open an Internet drugstore to compete with much-hyped startups such as drugstore.com and PlanetRx.

FORBES: Script doctor

Finally, we reach near present-day where on President George W. Bush's watch the world saw the third great oil price spike.

FORBES: The Efficacy Of Presidential Energy Policy

It went public in 1986 and is now run by a seven-person management committee headed by soft-spoken Chairman George Roche, 63, who joined in 1968 as an analyst and worked closely with Price.

FORBES: Price Is Right

The argument against is that there may be few or no natural buyers for the bonds - which could leave George Osborne with egg on his face, unable to sell the bonds at an acceptable price.

BBC: Should Osborne borrow for 100 years?

Though George Soros, Paul Tudor Jones and John Paulsen do capitalism a great favor through the price signals they help shape from their hedge funds, a stable dollar would make their work much less lucrative.

FORBES: A Gold Standard Would Be Great, But It's Not a Deficit Cure