"The first step in winning the future is encouraging American innovation."

This claim by Barack Obama, US president, in his State of the Union 2011 address could be repeated the world over, albeit by changing the population’s identity, as countries try to maintain growth rates historically boosted through relaxing credit controls and encouraging borrowing.

Obama said: "Half a century ago, when the Soviets beat us into space with the launch of a satellite called Sputnik, we had no idea how we would beat them to the moon … But after…