And this week George Papandreou, the Greek prime minister, met successful businessmen of Hellenic origin from five countries (such as Andrew Liveris, chief executive of America's Dow Chemical company), in the hope that they could lend their struggling homeland some badly needed pizzazz.

ECONOMIST: Diasporas

Either it slows, or in some cases--depending on economic situations in their countries of origin--immigrants in the U.S. may return to their home countries.

FORBES: America's New Immigrant Capitals

Some exporters, such as South Korea's Samsung Electronics, are so international that their valuations should anyway bear little relation to their countries of origin.

ECONOMIST: Emerging markets

NAFTA's complex rules of origin, moving instead towards a customs union with common tariffs on goods from other countries (to be set at the lowest level of any of the three).

ECONOMIST: North America