In the early 1980s veteran pollster Stan Greenberg, conducted a focus group in Macomb County, a Detroit suburb, of former Democrats who had switched allegiance to the Republican Ronald Reagan. After he read a statement by Robert Kennedy about racial inequality, one participant interjected: "No wonder they killed him."

Just as the House of Representatives was finally voting to reopen the government and save the nation from reneging on debt and inviting a downgrade, a House stenographer appears to have suffered a breakdown. Grabbing the microphone, she started defending God's honour before the nation.

 

In September 2007 Gerrit Six put Belgium on eBay. It was day 100 of his country's attempt to form a government and an exasperated Six suggested selling it for parts. He offered free delivery but made it clear the country was secondhand and anyone who bought it would be saddled with $300bn in national debt. EBay eventually took the ad down, but not before the bidding reached €10m. A government wasn't formed for another three months. A few years later Belgium went 589 days without a government.