That sounds fine, but what, realistically, are the choices?

Yet these alternatives are expensive, and cannot realistically replace fossil fuels.

But deflation is painful and cannot realistically be pursued for political reasons.

In this country, democracy is so far a young but realistically working instrument.

That mechanism is an election, to be held as soon as possible (realistically, by this summer).

Realistically, Sarkozy s invitation was probably his last chance to play a major political and international role.

To reconcile our environmental priorities with continued growth, we must act realistically, pragmatically, and above all immediately.

However effective the IMF's crisis prevention efforts are, realistically there will always be a next crisis country.

Many people realistically feared the outbreak of World War III and with good reason, according to many historians.

And yet the financial analysts that discuss these trends in the media have failed to assess them realistically.

In today s world, development objectives can realistically be met by supporting industrial growth, not only domestic industrial growth.

More importantly for the international community, this internal struggle keeps Iran s leaders from realistically appraising their foreign and nuclear policies.

Realistically, all that the Commission can ask of European national governments is for transparency and clarity in their fiscal accounts.

A modus vivendi is all that can realistically be achieved, suggests John Gray in his the Two Faces of Liberalism .

America must shed these ideological blinkers and deal realistically with the real Lula, not the bogeyman some Bush advisors have invented.

A team of economists led by David Montgomery estimates that spending 359 million could realistically slash 19 of black carbon emissions.

More realistically, it is designed to provide governments with the incentive to undertake the reforms that stimulate economic growth and productivity.

One cannot be certain of such an outcome, of course, but it is now the best that one can realistically hope for.

Even if Asia has succeeded by relentlessly exporting manufactures, today s poorest countries, especially in Africa, can realistically export only agriculture and textiles.

I do have Muslims friends and I respect the fact that they're fasting so realistically, I won't eat in front of them.

More realistically, the combination of optimism and productivity growth that powered America s boom looks likely to be less robust in the coming year.

As European policymakers seek to move from one stage of denial to another, perhaps it is time to start looking ahead more realistically.

In many countries, one could realistically expect a 4 average return on at least one percentage point of GDP worth of incremental investment.

No one should realistically expect the renminbi s exchange rate to be determined solely by the income level of the relatively prosperous eastern coastal regions.

That could happen again in 2012, when miscalculations on all sides could clear the path to war or a nuclear Iran or, quite realistically, to both.

The current distance is rooted as much in ignorance as in hard political issues, many of which go beyond what arts and culture can realistically address.

The first and more desirable is for the ECB to assess realistically Greece s lack of solvency and so stop providing ELA funds to its banking system.

So it is not really clear how these negotiations can take place, or what kind of treaty commitments the Cyprus government can realistically put its name to.

Second, India could create a system of universal literacy and education for the first time in its history, another dramatic social improvement that is realistically within reach.

And enterprise development policies should address linkages with multinational firms. In today s world, development objectives can realistically be met by supporting industrial growth, not only domestic industrial growth.

Of course, even in the face of this misery, we should not lose hope in agreements reached by diplomatic means but, realistically, the chances are dwindling every day.

In an ideal world, Iran should have been forced to scrap its nuclear program altogether and hand over all of its enriched uranium to an outside power but, realistically, that was unattainable.

People also believe that tax increases cannot realistically be purely temporary expedients in an economic crisis, and that they must be regarded as an opening wedge that should be avoided at all costs.

There is a second obstruction as well the US Congress refuses to face up realistically to the climate challenge, because China, as a developing country, is not obliged to accept compulsory carbon limits.

The tragic result is that some of the world s poorest countries cannot export their agricultural goods, one of the few areas where they might realistically compete with the likes of China and India.

In return, its creditors would agree to another one time debt write off large enough to enable Greece realistically to repay its debts in the future, but small enough to avoid unnecessary transfers of credit.

A team of economists led by David Montgomery estimates that spending 359 million could realistically slash 19 of black carbon emissions. This would have a significant cooling impact on the planet, and would save 200,000 lives from pollution.

Indeed, Russia s involvement in the Caucasus has been several centuries in the making, and the more enterprising scholar might realistically trace the roots of the August 2008 war to Czarist Russian expansion in the 18th and 19th centuries.

Capitalism involves a delicate problem of agency and trust giving managers the green light for entrepreneurship is not enough to make certain that the interests of investors are safeguarded nor is it enough for stock markets to price securities realistically.

But the emerging powers soon came to believe that the West had used the protection of Libya s civilian population as a pretext for regime change (though, realistically, it would have been impossible to protect the population without toppling Muammar el Qaddafi s government).

As soon as one country repays its loans, the IMF is better placed to re lend the foreign exchange to the next country in crisis. However effective the IMF's crisis prevention efforts are, realistically there will always be a next crisis country.

The collective response, adopted in 2000, has been the Lisbon Strategy, which aims at making the EU the most dynamic and competitive knowledge based economy in the world by 2010. More realistically, it is designed to provide governments with the incentive to undertake the reforms that stimulate economic growth and productivity.

The US adventure in Iraq has squandered 150 billion over two years, while Bolivia received 10 million that's right, 10 million in emergency help, a fifteenth or less of what was realistically needed to ease the intense economic crisis and help displaced peasants. Now US interests in Bolivia lie in shambles the country seethes with violence, and coca production is likely to soar.

Consider the long war, a bold concept embraced a few years ago to describe the continuing struggle against terrorism, the grudging progress that could realistically be achieved, and the enormous financial burden that it would impose for years to come. It was also a realpolitik acknowledgement of the setbacks to be expected along the way (the slog, as then Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld put it).

Although a president s advisers may change, one would think that candidates would acknowledge them, if only to suggest where their own ideas come from after all, realistically what they are selling is their ability to judge and manage expertise, not their own ability as economists. This time, too, however, there was no mention by name of any deep economic thinker, or of any specific economic model.