But software sales apart from Monster Hunter have been a bit soft and there is a nagging sense that the early and steep price cut merely lent the 3DS a short term boost.

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But the reset was based in part on two misplaced hopes: that Dmitry Medvedev, who had been lent the presidency for one term by Mr Putin in 2008, would genuinely take charge of the country, and that some in his government had sound liberalising, pro-Western instincts.

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Unless savers are literally stuffing their excess funds under a mattress, interest is paid on savings precisely because monies saved are lent to others with near-term demands.

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On the plus side, the presence of the state has lent a stability and long-term perspective to the investment and growth of the Chinese economy, which is not just reminiscent of the keiretsu in Japan but also the family holdings in the chaebols in Korea.

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Under the original Bretton Woods system, Mr McKinnon points out, America borrowed on a short-term basis from Europe, but lent long, making enormous direct investments in the rebuilding of Europe's war-blasted capital stock.

ECONOMIST: Economics focus

Only a fraction of the three-year money the ECB has lent to banks since December under its Long-Term Refinancing Operations has been channeled to troubled government-bond markets (though it has helped the banks).

WSJ: Euro Zone Takes Stock of Crisis-Fighting Arsenal

They might be investors who lent money to the bank by buying its short-term bonds, with a Libor-linked interest rate.

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