A chemical compound in wine reduces levels of a harmful molecule linked to Alzheimer's disease. In a recent study, resveratrol--one of several antioxidants found in wine--helped human cells break down the molecule, which contributes to the lesions found in the brains of Alzheimer's patients. Fortunately for teetotalers, the compound is also found elsewhere. Resveratrol is a natural polyphenol occurring in abundance in several plants, including grapes, berries and peanuts.

According to Kasriel's calculation, last year Americans spent approximately $472 billion more than they earned after taxes -- a negative savings rate of 5.2 percent. That spending is double the previous year -- and a record high.

Going back to 1929, Kasriel found just a dozen years in which households spent more than they earned by his calculation. Two were during the Great Depression. Three were in the decade following World War II, when consumers unleashed pent-up savings accumulated during the war (when there was little available to consume). The other seven years of negative savings have occurred since 1999.

Whichever reality you believe, it's clear that Americans are highly leveraged. The ratio of debt to assets hit a near record 18.2 percent in the third quarter of 2005, the most recent data available from the Federal Reserve's Flow of Funds Database. This ratio, tracked since 1952, measures the amount of debt Americans have, relative to the market value of all their assets -- savings accounts, stocks, bonds, real estate, etc. In the early 1980s, the ratio was around 13 percent; in the early 1950s, 7 percent.

Meanwhile, the debt service ratio -- the percentage of after-tax household income that goes to cover required principal and interest payments on debt -- hit a record high of 13.75% in the third quarter of 2005, the most recent data available.

Like other European countries, Germany from the Middle Ages developed a school system based on class. But whereas most other European countries have since moved on to more inclusive systems, Germany has essentially stuck to a three-tier structure: the Hauptschule (for students who hope to go on to an apprenticeship), the Realschule (whose graduates typically take middling white-collar jobs) and the Gymnasium (awarding the Abitur that admits the holder to university). Only at the Grundschule (elementary school) are pupils from all ability groups taught together.

Mr Lauterbach's academic speciality is Germany's health-care system, and to him the health-care industry is proof that German-style corporatism can be at least as costly as backroom deals. Just like education, he says, it is a system that protects privileges without adding any value: “It is not only inefficient, but also creates injustice.”

The third generation of Turkish immigrants, in particular, is increasingly marginalised— and not just because of the school system and the labour market. The exclusion starts when they become teenagers, explains Mr Ersan: they often switch to a Turkish football club at that point because their old German club makes it clear to them that they do not really belong there. When they have finished school, they are rarely offered even an unpaid internship, let alone an apprenticeship.

That is if they manage to finish school at all. According to a 2001 study by Bamberg University, 15.6% of young foreigners in Frankfurt failed to do so, compared with 6.5% of Germans. Far too many left school at 14. For Germany as a whole, the numbers are even worse.

Add other immigrants, refugees and EU citizens (who can come and go as they please), and it is easy to see why the number of foreigners grew rapidly, from 500,000 after the second world war to 6.7m (8% of the population) today. Another 7m or so Germans are naturalised immigrants. In record time, all this has turned Germany into nearly as much of a nation of immigrants as America.

Unlike other countries, including France, Germany has never seriously discussed affirmative action for immigrants. Nor has it grasped that immigration policy today is no longer about keeping foreigners out or turning them into good Germans, but about competing actively in the global war for talent, says Thomas Straubhaar, president of the Hamburg Institute of International Economics, a think-tank. In a globalised knowledge economy, he argues, the wealth of a country will increasingly depend on highly skilled individuals. Yet such people are mobile and can choose where they want to live.

(The Mayor of Jena) had the foresight to protect what is perhaps Jena's most important asset: its network of highly skilled people. Former Carl Zeiss employees were allowed to use the firm's facilities to create their own companies, spawning many start-ups. This has given Jena an entrepreneurial ecosystem that is rare elsewhere in Germany.

Wolfgang Streeck at the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies, one of Germany's foremost social thinkers, reckons that things are getting worse rather than better. Back in 2003, he wrote: “There is little hope that the German political system will overcome its present immobility, making continued social and economic decline the most likely scenario for the future.” Today he goes further: he argues that even a grand coalition will have to face the fact that the German state, “has, perhaps irreversibly, exhausted its means”.

To make a real difference, the government would have to do a whole host of things at once: cut payroll and corporate taxes, balance the budget, reduce debt, invest more in education and infrastructure and integrate immigrants. Yet given that the state's coffers are empty and growth is likely to remain moderate, that is an impossible task.

German football, it seems, is more willing to embrace change than the country as a whole. “A monopoly that isn't capable of innovating from within will be swept away at some point,” says Theo Zwanziger, the Football Association's new vice-president. Germany would be well advised to heed his words.

Some economists, however, said that a 6.8 percent rise last month in building permits, which are not affected by the weather, could be a signal that housing activity will not slow as much this year as previously thought as long as mortgage rates do not rise too quickly.

"Low long-term rates and a strong jobs market will continue to provide substantial support to the housing market," said Bob Walters, chief economist for Quicken Loans, an on-line lender.

But why do Americans feel so harried? Weirdly, prosperity may be to blame in two ways. First, thanks to rising real incomes, an American's time is worth more now. A walk in the park is more expensive than it used to be. (When people complain to him about being too busy, Mr Hamermesh tells them that their real problem is too much money.) Second, economic advances allow people to squeeze ever more possible activities, both work and leisure, into a day, which encourages people to try to do too much.

Greediocy: The foolish decisions made pursuing promises of easy riches.

For example, lured by our real estate bubble (yes, I believe in the bubble theory), someone bought the lot next to the Kaaawa Post Office and built two homes within feet of each other, each looking squarely into the other. Greediocy.

Or the realtor who is trying to leverage profits by finding homes sitting on lots just barely over 10,000 feet and then subdividing into barely legal properties to be sold separately. So although this part of Kaaawa was designed for "country" living with large lots, the whole feel that has made it a desirable area is being eroded by this thoughtless and overly aggressive real estate style.

Greediocy. It's a word that will cover a lot of ground.

The Star-Telegram newspaper (Texas) reports that "Home foreclosures continue to climb. The number of homes slated for foreclosure continues to rise in Tarrant County, with 1,101 headed to auction next month. That is a 17-year high, according to Foreclosure Listing Service. That total is up 27.6 percent from a year ago."

"The secular bear case certainly didn't pan out: consumers didn't collapse out of exhaustion; leveraged corporate balance sheets have been rejiggered; corporate profits, trade flows and international commerce stand at new records; fascinating new-technology product cycles play into globalizing consumer preferences."