The CEO suites of Wall Street have their first vacancy sign since the world learnt what sub-prime means.

Only Uruguay and Bolivia have active corporate bond markets.

Hong Kong’s notoriously volatile investors are again set firm in headless-chicken mode (the bullish version). Ever since China’s foreign securities regulator, Safe, announced in August that mainland investors would "soon" be allowed to begin throwing their hard-earned savings at Hong Kong-listed stocks, the local Hang Seng index has been on a superhuman tear.

That a third of hedge fund assets are invested in multi-strategy funds has implications for the wider market when funds need to sell off their most liquid assets.

Global liquidity is set to keep contracting and inflation will keep on increasing despite a growth slowdown. There is a serious risk of global recession in 2008.

Mifid came into effect on November 1 but the market had already been benefiting from the innovation it encourages. Peter Koh reports.

In October Venezuela’s president, Hugo Chávez, signed a number of new economic cooperation agreements in Havana with Raul Castro, the island’s temporary leader, in a move to reaffirm the countries’ anti-US alliance and strengthen their bilateral ties.

The economies of China and the Middle East are expanding at breakneck speed. Over the past 18 months, they have woken up to the importance of investing in each other’s growth. But as Chinese and Middle East investors still find it difficult to cooperate, what can be done to help? Dominic O’Neill reports.

China’s mergers and acquisitions market is gathering steam after a couple of relatively quiet years. Elliot Wilson reports.

"They danced with some good-looking girls but they danced with some ugly ones as well"

Many economic indicators in Turkey remain strongly positive despite internal political crises and flashpoints on the country’s borders. David Judson reports.

Shared service centres or payment factories? Corporates have to choose which system works best for them. There is no one size that fits all, while good working partnerships with banks are as important as ever.

The contrast with US regulation could hardly be more stark, writes Neil Wilson.

The credit market seizure vindicated a few brave hedge fund managers who had spotted the sub-prime crash coming, positioned themselves deftly, and made huge returns from it. These managers recount the challenges of deploying funds against the long-only herd, outline expectations for worse market disruptions ahead and analyze the public policy responses that threaten the potential returns of many investors now seeking to profit from distress. Peter Lee reports.

If you cast doubt on the future of the Dubai real estate market, those with stakes invariably tell you that they have heard it all before. "Every year they tell me something will go wrong, and every year I see Dubai growing stronger," Adel Al-Shirawi, CFO of Dubai home financier Tamweel, told Euromoney earlier this year.

Securitization went from being the success story of the capital market to the root of all its evils in just a couple of weeks this summer. Some of those caught in the storm relate the experience to Louise Bowman, who finds out how long it will take to stop being a dirty word.

A new study confirms the substantial benefits of a depositary receipt programme.

BNP Paribas has hired Kai Harden, who joins from Goldman Sachs, to co-head its Germany, Austria and Switzerland FIG business alongside Menko Jaekel. He is based in London and reports to Anthony Fane, head of DCM FIG Europe. Harden spent two years at Goldman Sachs and before that worked at JPMorgan.

One of Latin America’s biggest challenges is financing its massive infrastructure needs, and nowhere is this more pressing than in Mexico, especially in toll road development.

As Brazil’s economy and financial markets pick up, Credit Suisse and UBS face growing competition from other foreign banks and domestic contenders. Chloe Hayward reports.

A senior official in the Qatar government has hit back at claims that sovereign wealth funds lack transparency. Finance minister Yousef Hussein Kamal says that his country’s fund, Qatar Investment Authority, is an open, long-term investor, which should be welcomed by other governments.

For much of the past couple of years, ECM bankers have had to sit on the sidelines as IPO mandates slipped through their fingers as companies opted instead for sales to private equity buyers. The current weakness in the credit markets, which is making life difficult for leveraged buyouts, has, however, turned the tables. In October, Cadbury Schweppes announced that it planned to spin off its US beverage unit, the maker of Dr Pepper and 7 UP, after a seven-month search for a buyer was derailed by the credit market crunch.

Deutsche Bank has appointed Marzio Keiling and Mark Graham as co-heads of the European securitized products group (SPG). Keiling and Graham will report jointly to Erik Falk and Frank Byrne, co-heads of global SPG. The two are responsible for the origination and distribution of securitization products and services in Europe. Graham was a senior member of the Morgan Stanley real estate securitization team behind the Eloc programme. At Deutsche, he previously ran the European special situations group within SPG, focusing on illiquid securitized financings and whole-business securitization. Keiling was head of institutional client coverage for Europe. They replace Jeff Stolz, who joined Goldman Sachs in mid-August.

Saybrook’s Tax-Exempt Opportunity Funds are making money by investing in distressed and defaulted municipal bonds. CIO Jon Schotz talks to Helen Avery about the growth of opportunities in the sector.

Citi announced on October 2 that it would acquire the remaining shares in broker Nikko Cordial that it does not already own to make the company a wholly owned subsidiary. The move marks the first usage by a foreign firm of the new triangular merger legislation, which allows firms to use their shares rather than cash to make acquisitions and which has been available since May after a ban on the practice was rescinded.

The high quality of its mortgage assets might not be enough to save Northern Rock’s Granite master trust.

The expansion of the Panama Canal is set to draw in banks from far and wide because of the increased investment opportunities that the programme will have on all economic sectors in the country, according to bankers and analysts in the region.

Maha Al Ghunaim’s rarity factor as a female chief executive in Middle Eastern finance makes her a celebrity. Under her leadership, Global Investment House has become one of the region’s largest investment companies. Here she talks to Euromoney about the secrets of her own and her company’s success.

What was hailed as a great success for the credit derivatives market, the tackling of the unconfirmed transaction backlog, has turned out to be far from a mission accomplished.

"You’re fired" is the new "You’re free".