It’s a predicament that is shared by north African and Middle Eastern kings/presidents/rulers/dictators/despots/corruptors (delete as required) facing the wrath of their people and by real estate investors, and their lenders, with a debt problem. How to avoid falling off the cliff.

At the height of the recent and successful Egyptian revolution, Peter Brookes, the resident cartoonist at The Times in London, drew a cartoon that depicted president Hosni Mubarak — following a speech that was widely trailed as being a retirement announcement but that turned out to be anything but — being pushed over a cliff, walking on, looking down quizzically and walking on.

A day later, following reconsideration and military “persuasion”, the beleaguered president confirmed his belated decision to step down after 30 years. The Times published Take Two of the cartoon — Mubarak is pushed over the cliff, walks on