The extravagantly far-right demagogue, Vladimir Zhirinovsky, has run out of puff.

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The older manappeared to be out of puff.

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The fight against corruption is also out of puff: it was made clear this week that self-exiled Bettino Craxi, a former prime minister hitherto wanted on several charges, would face none if he came home.

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Besides, the baroness herself ran out of puff after her industrial privatisations: she never seriously tried to prise the welfare state out of public hands, and only just succeeded in slowing the growth of overall state spending.

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When she speaks, she says she literally runs of out puff after a few minutes and needs to take a moment to recover with a few deep breaths.

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You simply sweep your whole pile of chips into old-economy stocks, then puff on a cigar and wait out the coming convergence of valuations.

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