Growth in China helped boost incomes in many nations in 2004, but also drove up consumption of natural resources, increased the prices of raw materials, and pushed up pollution levels.
Migrants from eastern to western Germany boost western GDP and help foot the bill for unification; the east's Labour flexibility helped make western business more competitive.
During the previous downswing the percentage of full-time MBA programmes reporting higher applications soared as tech stars switched to textbooks (see chart).
But smaller companies and university officials say the growth of digital distribution could also allow them to challenge the majors by lowering barriers to entry.
They think its population grew rapidly and then remained more or less stable until the arrival of the Europeans, who introduced deadly diseases to which islanders had no immunity.
By mid-2007, when the majors realised that digital downloads were not growing as quickly as they had hoped, they landed on a more adventurous digital strategy.
Rising temperatures make carbon dioxide leak from the oceans for two main reasons. First, melting sea ice increases the rate that the ocean mixes, which dredges up CO2-rich deep ocean waters.
Since then, interest in the U-bend has been growing. Its effect on happiness is significant-about half as much, from the nadir of middle age to the elderly peak, as that of unemployment.