Relief is now conditional on recipients' efforts to gain skills and join the workforce.

ECONOMIST: He believes in government, so why doesn��t America?

To help them, the investors' main trade bodies set guidelines: companies that give share options to their top people are urged to make them conditional on minimum growth in earnings-per-share, and to restrict their value to four times the recipients' annual earnings, at the time they are awarded.

ECONOMIST: Keep on purring