Our interactive overview of global house prices and rents全球房价和租价互动概貌SCARCELY has one bubble deflated when another threatens to pop. While America's housing bust—the crash that began the global financial crisis—is near an end, adjustments elsewhere are incomplete. In a few countries, like China and France, values look dangerously frothy. There is always trouble somewhere. And because buying a house usually involves taking on lots of debt, the bursting of this kind of bubble hits banks disproportionately hard. Research into financial crises in developed and emerging markets shows a consistent link between house-price cycles and banking busts.一个泡沫很少在另一个泡沫行将破灭时自行减退。
当美国房地产泡沫破裂（房地产暴跌导致全球金融危机）接近尾声之时，其他地方的一些调整措施尚在进行中。
在一些国家——如中国和法国——房地产价格看上去依然是危险的泡沫。
总会有地方有麻烦。
并且，买房通常涉及承担大量贷款，这种类型的泡沫破裂之后，对银行造成的冲击会相当的大。
对发达和新兴市场的金融危机的研究表明，房价周期与银行萧条有一致的联系。
The Economist has been publishing data on global house prices since 2002. The interactive tool above enables you to compare nominal and real house prices across 20 markets over time. And to get a sense of whether buying a property is becoming more or less affordable, you can also look at the changing relationships between house prices and rents, and between house prices and incomes.《经济学人》自2002年以来就开始发布全球房地产价格数据。
您可以使用上面的互动式工具来比较不同时间段20个市场的房地产名义价格和实际价格。
并且，对于购买物业是变得容易了还是难了，您可以看看房价和租价、房价与收入之间变化的关系，来作出自己的判断。
Insurance 保险业经过两年下滑，全球保险业于2010年恢复增长。
根据瑞士再保险提供的数据上，2010年保费收入按实值计算达4.3万亿美元，整体上增长了2.7％。
按总量计算，富国主宰市场，但增长集中在新兴市场。
占全球市场份额四分之一多的美国去年保费名义上小幅上涨，但考虑到通胀因素，实际下跌。
新兴市场的保费实质增长11％。
中国保险市场虽然仍不及美国的五分之一，但它是去年增长最快的大市场，保费实际总额增长超过四分之一。
After two years of decline, the global insurance industry returned to growth in 2010. Overall, insurance premiums rose by 2.7% in real terms to $4.3 trillion in 2010, according to Swiss Re, a reinsurance firm. Rich countries dominate the market by volume, but growth was concentrated in emerging markets. In America, which accounts for more than a quarter of the world market, premiums rose slightly in nominal terms last year, but fell after adjusting for inflation. Emerging-world premiums rose by 11% in real terms. China’s insurance market, though still less than a fifth the size of America’s, was the fastest-growing big market last year, with total premiums surging by more than a quarter in real terms.Women in politics女性从政A noticeable number of females related to leaders are now in high political office相当数量的一些与领导人有关的女性现居政治高位YINGLUCK SHINAWATRA, whose party won Thailand’s general election and who is the country’s presumptive prime minister, is far from the only female relative of a former leader to have taken over the family political mantle (Yingluck is the youngest sister of Thaksin Shinawatra, the prime minister ousted by the army in 2006). As our table shows, there are at least 20 such figures now active in politics, including three presidents or prime ministers and six leaders of the opposition or presidential candidates. (The region most receptive to female dynastic leaders seems to be South Asia. Two of the last three presidents of the Philippines have also been related to former presidents.) Historical figures are not available for comparison, but it is hard to think of any period when so many such women hold high political office. A remarkable number are daughters or other relatives of former strongmen: they are influential in Ghana, France, Peru, South Korea, Guatemala, Kazakhstan and Italy. Perhaps women are thought best able to soften an authoritarian family brand, and make it more acceptable in a democracy.英拉·西那瓦所在的政党赢得泰国大选，据信她将成为总理。
不过作为接过家族政治重任的前领导人的女性亲属，她远非独一无二（英拉是他信最小的妹妹，后者在2006年被军队剥夺了权力）。
正如《经济学人》表格所示，至少有20位英拉式的人物现在活跃在政治舞台上，包括3位总统或总理、6位反对党领袖或总统候选人。
（对女性王朝领导人最为接纳的地方似乎是南亚。
菲律宾最近3位总统中，有两位都与前总统有关）。
尚没有历史数据可以拿来比较，不过很难想象哪一个时期有如此之多的女性居于政治高位。
相当数量的一些女性是前政治强人的女儿或者其他亲戚：她们在加纳、法国、秘鲁、韩国、瓜地马拉、哈萨克斯坦和意大利颇有影响力。
可能人们认为女性最能软化独裁主义家族烙印，使其在民主国家更能被接受。
Europe’s social media hotspots欧洲社交媒体的热点地区Which Europeans are the most enthusiastic, and the most fearful, social networkers哪些欧洲人最热衷社交网络，哪些欧洲人最害怕社交网络？WEB users in Germany are less likely to visit social networking sites than any of their European neighbours, according to a new study of internet habits published by the European Commission. Only 37% of German internet users make use of such services, compared with 80% in Hungary. In deed, internet geeks in the EU’s eastern member states seem the most smitten by networking sites, with Latvia, Poland, Slovakia and Cyprus registering similarly high proportions of users.A similar report in 2010 found that Europeans are increasingly concerned about online data privacy. Viewed as a whole, EU citizens are now split over whether to worry about the misuse of personal data on social networking websites. Curiously, the Commission has also found that European countries with high percentages of social network users tend to have low percentages of online shoppers (and vice-versa). The suggestion that friending and spending are largely incompatible may be a cause for concern for social networks that still struggle to extract steady revenues from their mammoth memberships.根据欧洲委员会(European Commission)最新发布的一份互联网行为习惯的研究报告，德国的互联网用户比起其它欧洲国家的网民较少访问社交网站。