THE ECONOMIST

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Dear Reader,

Our cover story in Asia this week gives warning of a chain reaction of proliferation that could result from North Korea's nuclear antics; if China is at all serious about joining America as a global leader, this is the time for it to shoulder its responsibility by helping to punish Kim Jong Il. Elsewhere, our cover leader gives an early warning of a different sort: the danger that a bigger role for government could pose for American business. Barack Obama, and his Democratic allies in Congress, risk overreaching in their zeal to sort out America's troubles. By all means Mr Obama should fix the flaws of America's free-market capitalism, but he should not take its dynamism for granted. That dynamism, argues our special report in this issue, means that American business should emerge from the recession leaner and stronger than ever.

Here are some other pieces from this week's issue you might also be interested in. You can click straight through to each one and read it online at Economist.com using the links below.


John Micklethwait
Editor in Chief


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THIS WEEK'S HIGHLIGHTS:

Executive pay
Attacking the corporate gravy train

Opposing Sarkozy
All the president's enemies

The origin of swine flu
Piecing it together

Open-source computing
Unlocking the cloud

Twenty years after Tiananmen
The Party goes on