It had cheap land, weak trade unions and enough space to make sure that the various classes and races could keep themselves to themselves.

ECONOMIST: Trouble in paradise

With signs of weak PC demand growing, the Street has lately been chopping estimates for various key players in the electronics supply chain.

FORBES: Microsoft: With PC Demand Weak, Estimates Start To Slip

This has been a rough year for all of the players in the PC sector: plagued by a combination of weak IT spending, tablet cannibalization, some mixed opinions for Windows 8 and various other factors, PC sales have stumbled badly, falling about 8% year-over-year in the third quarter.

FORBES: 3 Reasons Why PC Demand Can Get Weaker Still

They firmly blamed the bosses of Barclays bank for the way their staff tried to manipulate the Libor rate-setting process at various times between 2005 and 2009, in what the committee's chairman called a period of "extremely weak internal compliance and board governance at Barclays" and a "failure of regulatory supervision".

BBC: Libor scandal: MPs demand changes over rate-rigging