But perhaps most relevant, whatever its merits, telecommuting and home-based work seems to be the inevitable wave of the future, whether corporate managers like it or not.

FORBES: Marissa Mayer's Misstep And The Unstoppable Rise Of Telecommuting

With jobs now the number one issue on the minds of voters, any measure that promises to reverse job outflow, whatever its merits, is viewed as good politics.

FORBES: The Great Currency Debate

More than ten years on, the wisdom of the fund's strategy is still in dispute. (If an economy carries a lot of short-term debt, high interest rates may wreak such havoc that the exchange rate collapses anyway.) But whatever its merits during the Asian financial crisis, the high-rate defence has little appeal today.

ECONOMIST: Has the IMF changed? Or has the world?

This is the nub of Cypriots' hard feelings about this week's bank overhaul, whatever its other merits.

WSJ: Raymond Zhong: Reflections on the Revolution in Cyprus

Whatever the policy merits of her "poll tax, " its implementation was badly handled and ultimately led to her political downfall.

WSJ: Review & Outlook: Not for Turning

Whatever the merits of the stability pact as a long-term policy tool, its short-term impact is now perverse.

ECONOMIST: Wait and see, again | The