First, perspective: the moral weight of a national crisis is in inverse proportion to a nation's wealth and power.

CNN: Rwandan tragedy, Lewinsky farce

Commercial competence seems to be in inverse proportion to skills on the pitch with the British clubs leading both the Italians and the South Americans.

ECONOMIST: Golden goals

To help it avoid charges of suppressing the emergence of methods that may prove better than its favoured ones, the government should look to one particular principle, outlined in its education white paper of autumn 1997: that intervention in schools should be in inverse proportion to their success.

ECONOMIST: Journey up the learning curve