In a petition filed with the FDA, the International Dairy Foods Association (IDFA) and the National Milk Producers Federation (NMPF) seek to change the definition of “milk” so that chemical sweeteners like aspartame and sucralose can be used as optional ingredients not listed on the product label.

If the petition — originally filed in 2009 and now under consideration by the FDA — is successful, these hidden additives could also be included in 17 other dairy products — including whipping cream, low-fat and non-fat yogurt, eggnog, sweetened condensed milk, sour cream, and half-and-half — without requiring any special labeling.

But so long as someone at the ECB was willing to flood the world with free EUROs (with significant backup provided by the US Federal Reserve) the market closed its eyes, held its breath and took the leap of faith that all was well. However, post the Cyprus decision, the curtain has been pulled back and wizard revealed with all his faults and warts. The age of innocence is dead and with it died institutional and retail trust, confidence in the system writ large and the rule of law.

It would be hard to over-emphasize how significant the Cyprus situation is.

The EU demonstrated under no uncertain circumstances that they will destroy the rule of law to maintain their own power. It was recognition of tyranny that many of us have always assumed was the case, but yesterday became reality.

More than half a century after its introduction, RPI is the best-known benchmark of inflation and is used to uprate State pensions and National Savings & Investments index-linked certificates.

Two months ago, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) surprised critics who claimed it was about to replace RPI with the Consumer Prices Index (CPI) which consistently produces lower figures. For example, RPI has produced higher measurements of inflation than CPI in 15 of the 16 years since the latter index was introduced. While CPI currently shows annual inflation at 2.7 percent, RPI is more than a fifth higher at 3.3 percent.

Now it appears that RPI is to be downgraded after all. Ros Altmann, a director of the London School of Economics, is among experts who question the apparent about-turn. She said: “The UKSA has quietly downgraded the RPI – our traditional measure of inflation, on which many incomes and prices depend. A statement, hardly noticed by anyone, said it had decided the RPI would no longer be an official statistic. There was no widely disseminated press release or publicity.”

The MPs' expenses scandal and the handling of the Libor-rate rigging by banks were amongst the controversies which were blamed for damaging public trust. The 2011 riots provided the country with an insight into the “unpredictable consequences of institutional breakdown”, the researchers for The Economist Intelligence Unit said.

They measured the health of democracy in 167 countries across the globe. While Britain scored well for having open and free elections, it was found that an alarmingly low number of people - just over six in 10 - actually participated in politics. The deepest cuts to public spending since 1945 being pushed through by the coalition risk escalating resentment.

Across the American heartland, farmland prices are soaring. In places like Waco, Nebraska, and Chickasaw County, Iowa, where the boom-and-bust cycle of farming reaches deep into the psyche, some families are selling the land that they have worked for generations, to cash in while they can. In Iowa, despite the drought last year, farmland prices have nearly doubled since 2009, to an average $8,296 an acre, far surpassing the last boom’s peak in 1979. In Nebraska, the price of irrigated land has also doubled since 2009.

But if the price of corn falls — and many forecasters predict it will, particularly if the ethanol boom wanes — the price of farmland will fall with it. While many farmers have borrowed little money or used cash to finance their purchases, those who have overexpanded could run into trouble, leaving banks and other creditors with their bad debts.

“You can’t continue to see the price increases in land like we’ve been seeing. That’s just heading for trouble,” said Michael Duffy, an economist in farm management at Iowa State University. If the price of a bushel of corn were to fall to $4.50 from about $7 now, farmland values could collapse by as much as 25 percent, he said.

Delegates from more than 20 Christian churches and ecumenical organizations announced their attendance. However, the presence of His Holiness Bartholomew I is of historic significance. Considered “first among equals” in the Eastern Orthodox Communion, the Patriarch of Constantinople has not attended the installation of a Pope of Rome in more than 950 years, since Constantinople split from Rome in 1054.

Father James Puglisi, who is the Minister-General of the Franciscan Friars of the Atonement and director of an ecumenical centre in Rome, called Centro Pro Unione, says the participation of Bartholomew I sends a strong signal in favour of ecumenical dialogue.

Efforts to save the euro have long been criticized for being undemocratic, with bailout packages being assembled behind closed doors in Brussels. But after Tuesday evening's vote in the Cypriot parliament, that critique will be difficult to maintain. Not a single parliamentarian in Nicosia cast a vote in favor of the bailout package, one which foresaw a mandatory levy on accounts held with Cypriot banks.

With their veto of the expropriation plan, parliamentarians in the island nation showed that representatives of a small European Union member state can indeed block euro-zone efforts to save the common currency. One thing, though, is clear. If the euro zone blinks in its game of chicken with mini-member Cyprus, it will be forfeiting many future duels as well.

Cypriot Finance Minister Michael Sarris said he had not reached a deal at a first meeting with his Russian counterpart Anton Siluanov in Moscow, but talks there would continue. Russia's finance ministry said Nicosia had sought a further 5 billion euros, on top of a five-year extension and lower interest on an existing 2.5 billion euro loan.

Cyprus is seeking Moscow's help after parliament voted down the euro zone's plan for a 10 billion euro bailout on Tuesday. Cypriots balked at EU demands for a levy on bank deposits to raise 5.8 billion euros, an unprecedented measure that opponents said would have violated the principle behind an EU-wide guarantee on deposits of up to 100,000 euros.

The European Central Bank's chief negotiator on Cyprus, Joerg Asmussen, said the ECB would have to pull the plug on Cypriot banks unless the country took a bailout quickly.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: Mr Bofinger, Cyprus will be saved - and every Cypriot bank customer will have to pay up. Whether that person is Greek or Russian, whether they have €1,000 or €10 million in their account, part of that person's savings will be taken. Is this a good strategy?

Bofinger: It is the worst possible. Making small-scale savers pay is extremely dangerous. It will shake the trust of depositors across the Continent. Europe's citizens now have to fear for their money.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: Do you expect that despositors in Spain, Italy, Portugal and other crisis-plagued countries will make a run on their accounts because they, too, might have to pay someday?

Bofinger: Yes. These fears will now be stoked. The Spaniards, Italians and Portuguese may not run to the banks today or tomorrow, but as soon as the crisis intensifies in a euro-zone country, the bank customers will remember Cyprus. They will withdraw their money and, by doing so, intensify the crisis.

The food would not come free. Instead, the items would be scanned as you walked towards the exit and the total cost charged to your mobile device, with loyalty points added automatically. "The same could be true anywhere you see humans clustering to pay," said futurologist Peter Cochrane. "Technology has the ability to change all that."

Those who feel uneasy at the thought of paying for their morning coffee by waving their debit or credit card over a card reader should brace themselves for a new era in payment technology. Experts warn that in the coming years debit and credit cards not to mention the collection of dog-eared loyalty cards in your wallet will give way to a new generation of contactless payments, from mobile transactions to digital jewellery.

Mr Cochrane predicted that by 2015 contactless technology will have become a mainstream payment system.

The IMF and the EU could have easily bailed out Cyprus without any trouble whatsoever, but they purposely decided not to do that. Instead, they decided that this would be a great time to test the idea of a "wealth tax". The government of Cyprus was given two options by the IMF and the EU - either they could confiscate money from private bank accounts or they could leave the eurozone. Apparently this was presented as a "take it or leave it" proposition, and many are using the world "blackmail" to describe what has happened.

Sadly, this decision is going to set a very ominous precedent for the future and it is going to have ripple effects far beyond Cyprus. After the banksters steal money from bank accounts in Cyprus they will start doing it everywhere. If this "bank robbery" goes well, it will only be a matter of time before depositors in nations such as Greece, Italy, Spain and Portugal are asked to take "haircuts" as well. And what will happen one day when the US financial system collapses? Will US bank accounts also be hit with a "one time" wealth tax? That is very frightening to think about.

• All the ingredients of a self-fulfilling crisis are now in place:

It will be individually rational to withdraw deposits from local banks to avoid the remote probability of a confiscatory tax.

• As depositors learn what others do and proceed to withdraw funds, a bank run will occur.

• The banking system will collapse, requiring a Cyprus-style programme that will tax whatever is left in deposits, thus justifying the withdrawals.

This would probably be the end of the euro.