It's a little fad of mine.

What is it, some new American fad?

So, social production is a real fact, not a fad.

I was under the impression that these uncomfortable little cars were just a fad.

If we don't develop the stamina to stick with things whatever it is you pick, stick with it all of this stuff is just going to be, you know, a fad.

Governments, he says, should aim to maximize their people s Gross National Happiness rather than their Gross National Product. Does this new emphasis on happiness represent a shift or just a passing fad?

After recent events in Tunisia, Egypt, and Libya, Wall Street analysts are waxing somewhat less optimistically about political stability in emerging countries. And a flat 2011 performance in some Latin American and Asian equity markets following tremendous runs in 2010 has taken a bit of sheen off the emerging market investment fad.

Indeed, the EU is among the leading actors in the current G fad, which has culminated most recently in the G 20. And, despite being an embodiment of international law, the EU indulges in soft law approaches, whether at the recent COP 19 climate change meeting in Warsaw, or by supporting the Geneva agreement on Iran s nuclear program, which, it is now clear, is nothing more than two aspirational declarations linked by a press release.