It also typifies the recent ferment in the executive suites of major agencies, as underlined yesterday by the abrupt firing of Nigel Carr, a managing partner at Kirshenbaum Bond & Partners, after more than a dozen years there.
Investment in education, as Gordon Brown underlined last week, has to stay a high priority.
The growing economic chasm between Germany and southern European countries such as Greece was underlined today when industrial powerhouses BASF, Siemens and Bayer reported bigger than expected profits.
The dramatic effect of falling oil prices on profits in the energy sector will be underlined this week as BP unveils third quarter earnings that could be as much as 20% lower than the same period last year.
That point has been underlined this year as the candidates' wealth contrasts with the economic struggles of many voters.
The collapse of the corporate jet market was underlined today as the Canadian engineering giant Bombardier slashed 3,000 jobs including nearly 1,000 workers in Northern Ireland.
The potential for turmoil was underlined last week as growing unrest in the Middle East spread to oil-rich Libya, helping oil prices to hit a new two-year high.
No matter that the work and pensions secretary's squeezing of the welfare balloon into a new shape will cause old problems to pop up in new places, as Resolution Foundation research has underlined this week.
The centrality of the Palestinian problem in the Middle East was underlined this weekend, as Arab leaders gathered for one of their increasingly rare summit meetings under the umbrella of the Arab League in Cairo.
The financial hazards of working in the North Sea were underlined yesterday as the oil and gas services company Petrofac issued its third profit warning in a year, and said the group faced unprecedented challenges.
But the difficulties likely to be faced by any Sunni push against Isis were underlined today, as 70 members of a Sunni tribe who were opposed to the jihadists were reportedly slaughtered by the group, according to a tribal elder.
