Some German women are desparately trying to delay giving birth—and thus make themselves eligible for a new cash bonus for childrearing:

Parents of babies born on or after 1 January will be entitled to up to 25,200 euros (£16,911, $33,300) to ease the financial burden of parenthood. But those born even a minute earlier will not be covered by the scheme. The cash subsidies are part of a government initiative to boost Germany's dwindling birth rate.

FP readers may recall that former Singapore PM Lee Kuan Yew predicted that just such aggressive moves would be necessary to avert Europe's coming population meltdown. The notion that national governments can take a laissez-faire attitude toward the citizenry's procreation, he said, was dangerously outdated. Germany appears to agree.