In particular, reports used in this survey are the Country Economic Memorandum, and the half-yearly Economic Reports.

ECONOMIST: Sources and acknowledgments

Such thoughts will concentrate the minds of some of the delegates at this weekend's half-yearly Lib Dem conference in Southport.

ECONOMIST: The party is either being very clever, or very stupid

Hornby has reported a heavy half-yearly loss, with the toymaker blaming weak UK and Olympic sales, and disruption at a key Chinese supplier.

BBC: Hornby reports loss after poor Olympic sales

Last week Argentina announced its latest (half-yearly) count of unemployment: a rate down to 13.8% from 16.1% in May and 18.4% at its recessionary peak in 1995.

ECONOMIST: Argentina

In its half-yearly economic outlook, the group expects its member countries' economies to shrink by 4.1% this year, while government efforts stand in the way of further declines.

FORBES: Markets Brief

In the half-yearly financial report, Securicor chairman Lord Sharman concluded that it was clear there was a weakness within the larger world economies with customers either cutting back on services or delaying purchasing decisions.

BBC: Criticism prompts new prison jobs

In its half-yearly assessment of the euro zone's financial sector, also published Wednesday, the ECB argued that the response from financial markets to political shocks was "muted" in the first half of this year, thanks largely to its own efforts to backstop government debt markets and relieve bank funding pressures.

WSJ: ECB: Cyprus Shock Caused Deposit Flight

The firm calculates that it saves more than a half-million dollars yearly above the cost of running the center.

FORBES: Those baby-sitter blues

Over the longer term, alpha fell as the funds grew, with the largest funds displaying an alpha deficit of 20 basis points a month, or half the 4-5% yearly edge attributed to hedge funds.

FORBES: Bigger Definitely Not Better In Hedge Funds, Report Says