But stand-alone investment banks face an even wobblier future than their universal-banking cousins.

ECONOMIST: Universal banking

This time, the flow was towards the banks, as hedge funds realised that the broker-dealer model was much wobblier than they thought.

ECONOMIST: Where will hedge funds put their business in future?

Add in fast-rising security costs and the economics look even wobblier.

ECONOMIST: Greeks bearing games | The

There is capital on offer for wobblier firms too.

ECONOMIST: Corporate finance

NATO, have by contrast been a lot wobblier.

ECONOMIST: Slovakia

In government-bond markets, China's support for wobblier states may well dwindle as 2013 gets nearer: then a new euro-zone sovereign-debt fund will be able to promote the claims of European governments on some countries above those of other creditors.

ECONOMIST: Capital and companies from China are sidling into Europe

And the Belarussian leader is in a hurry, both because his economy is (even) wobblier than Russia's and because he seems to think that, under existing agreements with Russia, he can leap across the border and win Mr Yeltsin's job at Russia's presidential election next year.

ECONOMIST: Russia and Belarus