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Analysts predict that Spain will be hit hard by the global economic downturn. But Baldomero Falcones of conglomerate FCC tells Laurence Neville he’s confident the company is well placed to thrive.

As the interview concludes, Euromoney asks Eike Batista: “Beyond wealth, what else do you want to achieve that you haven’t?” A broad grin appears. “I want people to be envious… Envious of what I am going to make Rio.”

Analysts at Royal Bank of Canada recently summed up the prospects for many of the non-G7 economies in a piece of research entitled Running out of bullets.

If you thought the credit market was dead, it’s not. It is now called the sovereign debt market. The crisis has boosted demand for their paper, but a day of reckoning for the government bond markets is coming. Alex Chambers reports.

Hedge fund activists are finding it harder to spot opportunities.

Hedge fund lay-offs continue to accelerate. Bluebay Asset Management, the fixed-income specialist firm, laid off 30 people in February. One firm, however, is hiring heavily. DE Shaw has been advertising for an investor relations associate, a government adviser associate, a computational biochem associate as well as general staffers across several websites over February. "We’re not your typical finance firm. We hire painters, poets, and mystery novelists. We offer brilliant colleagues, flexible schedules, free food, free admission to most major NYC museums, yoga classes, and no dress code... Plus, we have a supercomputer. No matter what you’ve studied, if you’re smart, accomplished, and willing to learn, you’ll fit right in," says the posting.

Credit default swaps market gets its house in order.

Turkish regulators have eased issuance criteria in an attempt to breathe some life into the country’s moribund corporate bond market. At the end of January the Capital Markets Board (SPK) slashed the red tape governing the structuring and timing of corporate bond issuance as fears grew that Turkish corporates would face growing difficulties in rolling over or securing fresh debt in the international syndicated loan markets, which in recent years have been the traditional source of funding for many of the country’s firms.

One of the smallest EU sovereign issuers is determinedly fighting its corner, as Portugal’s debt agency head, Alberto Soares, tells Alex Chambers.

Aladdin Capital Holdings has launched a fund that will invest exclusively in debtor-in-possession facilities.

The new US Treasury secretary took just three weeks to disappoint those hoping he could find a way to save the US banking system and give a lead to the rest of the world. He has put off creating a bad bank to purge the system’s toxic assets but its day will surely come. There are bad banks aplenty now and when they inevitably collapse, taxpayers will pick up the mess. Peter Lee reports.

Bain Capital has reportedly proposed waiving the 2% management fee on several of its private equity funds.