We are assuming that our societies are going to be based on mistrust.

But assume that China does revalue its currency sharply, by, say, 40 .

One can assume that next year s total spending on military affairs will be even bigger.

At the same time, it would be short sighted to assume that fossil fuels, especially coal, are a profitable and sustainable energy source.

But, given the tastes and appetites of Moscow s mayor, you can assume that he will continue to pour what money remains into the city s building boom.

Should they come forward, that would be a tricky situation for us, but we're presumably acting in such a way that people feel morally compelled to continue our mission, not to screw it up.

First, it has to be assumed that individuals prefer to avoid risk.

Will the oil sheikhs reduce output of fossil fuels? At first glance, it seems natural to assume this, as most suppliers reduce production when the price falls.

But this assumes that our income relative to the income of others does not matter.

Let s assume, I said next, that Nicholas and John own two small firms that compete with each other.

So presumably he has a constructive vision for the Bank s future.

To illustrate, suppose that this reduction in the value of the pound is 5 .

For example, when we talk about American lifestyles needing five planets, we assume that technology is frozen, whereas it is likely that worldwide land use productivity will increase dramatically.

It is not a good idea to assume that markets will solve these distributional problems by themselves the evolution of structure and the income distribution are largely the result of market incentives.

And, according to Greenspan s successor, Ben Bernanke, there is no reason to assume that the unemployment rate will approach 5 generally considered to be the natural rate of unemployment any time soon.

The sleight of hand works because we assume that the action will cancel all the effects of inaction, whereas of course, nothing like that is true.

We need not assume that these goals cannot be pursued simultaneously.

We can no longer presume that its institutional arrangements reflect its citizens preferences.

Nevertheless, we should not take a positive outcome of the review as a foregone conclusion, nor should we assume that the subsequent launch of a final status process will be automatic.

The concepts of intelligence and of race are less clear cut than we often assume them to be.

But are we to assume that the same brilliance and creativity and adaptability that got us up to the top of that energy mountain in the first place is somehow mysteriously going to evaporate when we have to design a creative way back down the other side?

But it is neither useful nor very plausible to assume that Kim Jong un and his military advisers are mad.

But it would be most imprudent to assume that the turning point is right now, and that things are as bad as they will get.

To them, one can only assume, the debates are nothing more than a personality contest.

It would be rash to assume that the outcome in Russia would be as benign as Ukraine s Orange Revolution.

Both will depend on the outcome of the review, and that outcome is in the hands of Kosovo's leaders, who should continue their progress in implementing the standards.

One would assume that Obama would prove even more unsettling to bin Laden.

On the contrary, it would be a grave mistake to assume that fanatical Islamism fully defines Saudi attitudes toward religion.

Suppose it was divided into independent political units of two million people each.

In the rich world, when a mother dies giving birth, we assume that something went wrong.

It is therefore inaccurate to assume China changed suddenly and all at once in the year 1644.

For all of their infuriating brinkmanship, it is reasonable to assume that North Korea s leaders are not bent on national suicide, as any attempted use of their still very modest nuclear arsenal would certainly entail.

It is reasonable to presume that the commodity boom s positive effect on Latin America s terms of trade will last for an extended period perhaps 10 15 years but that it will not be permanent.

It would be dangerous to assume that after Tunisia, democracy in the Arab world is just around the corner.

Yet it would be a grave mistake to assume that the ECB can deliver lasting economic peace.

Of course, relaxed and happy people can still become depressed, and stressed and unhappy people may not be depressed, but it is a reasonable hypothesis that happier people are less likely to become depressed.

It is thus wrong to assume that economies based on cheap labor are massively outcompeting the EU.

The two names that have been floated so far presumably leaked as trial balloons are particularly disturbing.

While the meaning of coordinated has not been spelled out, it presumably implies that the national exit strategies should not lead to significant changes in exchange rates that would upset existing patterns of trade.

We also assume an automatic acceptance of rules that in fact took a long time to become embedded even in the US.

But the next worst thing is to assume that a minor patch up will be enough to render globalization healthy and sustainable.

The sleight of hand works because we assume that the action will cancel all the effects of inaction, whereas of course, nothing like that is true. This becomes much clearer if we substitute much smaller action than Barroso envisions.

It is not entirely far fetched to assume that an Obama effect is having an impact on Israel s current international predicament.

Medvedev may one day have his own Yukos moment, but we should not assume that he is an independent player until he does.

It is therefore safe to assume that not only obscure academics and correspondents, but officials in Beijing as well, are now busy studying the history of the Ghulja uprising and of Osman Batur s guerillas.