Argentina’s debt default, devaluation and subsequent recovery is, along with Enron’s fall from grace, the biggest financial story of the decade.

In 2005, the Nikkei equity index shot ahead by 40% while 10-year Japanese government bond yields inched higher by just 15bp.

Emerging market sovereigns that issue heavily in debt markets should prepare for higher borrowing costs.

If anything symbolizes how far emerging markets have come over the past five years, it’s the growth of their domestic capital markets. Few would dispute that emerging markets local-currency debt is now an established asset class, despite its relative youth. Local-currency debt is the way of the future, but further reforms are necessary.

With hedge funds collapsing at record rates, funds of hedge funds will need to reassess their strategies. If you can’t beat them, join them.

Rumours of electronic broker EBS’s imminent takeover are rife, but a £1 billion price tag seems wide of the mark. Getting these to agree on whether tea or coffee is served at board meetings is probably difficult. Getting consensus on whether or not to sell EBS’s business, and then who to sell it to, must be a near impossibility.

High oil prices pushed Latin America’s equity markets to dangerous levels. In a new era where emotions about oil scarcity run high, Latin America is perceived as a big, endless supply of commodity wealth. But keep an eye on the volatility.

The country’s stock indices are rising as the prospect of a coherent market looms into view.

If Mifid forces banks to physically trade illiquid bonds they publish prices on, they won’t risk their capital.

Fewer new financial sector rules from the EC might sound like a welcome respite, but it is not the same thing as no new rules.

Like bespoke tailors, private bankers have to offer clients just that little bit extra.

Complaints about the prices of bank privatizations do nothing to further the cause of China’s continued integration into the global economy.

Nobody in their right mind would spend the week before Christmas trawling through the credit outlooks for 2006 published by investment banks, so Euromoney has done it for you. The good times should continue to roll, but look out for some painful bumps along the way.

India is fast becoming a remote front and middle office for the banking industry.

Structured products are a hugely profitable business line for investment banks. They allow banks to package up risks and pass them on to third parties in the form of an investment where the buyer may win or lose, but the seller always stands to gain.

The economy minister’s ousting signals the end of an era.

First non-investment grade trade shows the spoils to come in distressed debt trading.

But Singh’s government must hold steady on the road to reform.

The wounds from the region’s financial crisis may have healed on company balance sheets but the trauma remains

Trichet’s statements have profound implications for some EU member states

Can wealth management truly thrive within the confines of an investment bank?

Investment banks need to think carefully about which institutions they market their services to.

As banks get ready to divide up their bonus pool in December or early January, some fixed income traders had better get ready to be disappointed.

Conditions attached to buy-out completion is more a sign of desperation than discernment.

It is one of the great ironies of the European bond market that one of the largest market distortions occurs within the sovereign sector and are caused by the direct actions of Europe’s sovereign debt managers. The regulatory environment in Europe is tighter than ever, with the EU taking an aggressive and sometimes misguided stance in its aim of eliminating distortions in the capital markets, notably with its Market Abuse Directive and MiFID. And yet, despite all the EU’s talk of market efficiency, it ignores the market abuse happening right under its nose.

The hedge fund industry has matured at a faster pace than anyone could have anticipated. Sure, there are still problems, but the old habit of tarring all hedge funds with the old brush of suspicion must surely be left in the past.

Dismissing the official charged with setting up a debt agency sends the wrong signals at home and abroad.

The bankruptcy highlights the CDO market’s continued inability to price in potential credit events.

The sovereign should deepen its domestic market, not issue local-currency debt abroad

Hybrid corporate bonds might be the new hot product of the Eurobond market but originators’ hopes for a deluge of new issues have not been fulfilled.