M. Tonry, Thinking about Crime Sense and Sensibility in American Penal Culture (Oxford University Press, 2004), p. 220.

Given the difficulty of coming up with even 10 billion a year let alone the 200 billion a year that is needed for mitigation and adaptation it is wishful thinking to expect an agreement along these lines.

Well, think about what artists, novelists and poets have in common, the ability to engage in metaphorical thinking, linking seemingly unrelated ideas, such as, It is the east, and Juliet is the Sun.

The Bank of England has also tried to stimulate fresh ideas. The proceedings of a conference that it organized earlier this year have now been edited under the provocative title What s the Use of Economics?

That said, there is clearly room for allowing more heterodox thinking. So it is encouraging that the BoE is experimenting with a platform that enables a wider variety of views to be heard a blog called Bank Underground (a reference to the Tube station beneath the Bank s headquarters) that publishes posts by junior staff challenging or supporting prevailing policy.

Perhaps surprisingly, there is widespread consensus in the Arab Awakening countries that the private sector is central to sustained job creation and growth. We saw this recently when the EBRD, together with the British based organization Forward Thinking, conducted a closed door workshop for 27 leading representatives of parties from across the political spectrum in the region.