"It would be the worst possible solution for Germany."

"That was not at all a bad solution," Firesong said, calmly.

"Moving the Greeks off campus could be the worst solution of all," he said.

Without a Medicare drug benefit, though, "people could get irrational, and then we'll end up with a bad solution like price controls," he said.

Unions are much like democracy: the worst possible solution - except for all the others.

'This would be the worst solution possible,' he said.

It also offers the worst solution to a difficult, delicate problem.

"War is the worst solution for everyone," he has said.

The Economist has long argued for the legalisation of drugs, calling it the "least bad solution" in a 2009 issue.

But this part of the problem was destined to find a worse solution than he dreamed of.