They don't consider deficits of that size (3.6% of gross domestic product) a problem, particularly if they're financing pro-growth tax cuts.

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On the other hand, iTunes in the cloud, fixing Siri, competing in maps, finding another complex product-service problem that will unlock long term revenues.

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Surprisingly, the luxury-goods business is having a strong year, largely thanks to demand in China, the Gulf and other emerging economies. (Indeed, things have been so good that perfume-makers face a new product-liability problem in Russia, where oligarchs' girlfriends buy dozens of bottles in order to bathe in a fragrance, unaware that this can be deadly.) Japan, which experienced similar excesses in the 1980s, still accounts for around a quarter of global luxury-goods sales.

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