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Pension system nationalization announced last month brings country ‘closer to the abyss’.

"This is a profound ethical issue. These are very sophisticated operations where the counterparty was not a hedge fund – it was not even a financial institution. Should a grocery chain be selling volatility protection?"

"This is worse then a divorce – I’ve lost half my net worth but I still have my wife!"

As the global financial crisis begins to take its toll in Latin America, several banks are starting to look towards private equity opportunities. "Investment banks are very creative at finding ways to charge fees," says Matt Cole, managing director at North Bay Equity Partners, a Latin America focused private equity house. "In 2006/07 the investment banks encouraged companies to list on the stock exchange. Now the banks are starting to pitch private equity deals rather than public equity deals." Antonio Neto, debt banker at HSBC, says: "It makes sense for the investment banks to consider private equity investments when the capital markets are so quiet."

The huge losses being reported by corporates from emerging markets around the world suggest that not all is as rosy in FX as might have been reported.

The BBC has launched a new series in the UK that seems eerily well timed considering the current financial situation. Little Dorrit, which premiered on Sunday October 26, is the story of a family that has fallen into debt and lost its house thanks to the overly aggressive lending policies of banks on the brink of world recession.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said last month that oil prices, which have dropped by half in the last few months, will probably keep falling as the US falls into recession.

Mid-caps starved of operational and growth capital have new lenders.

A good deal has already been written about the relatively high cost, at least when compared with many other markets, of processing trades in foreign exchange.

The credit crisis could leave in its wake rich pickings for Middle East sovereign wealth funds. But what about private-equity-style government groups that rely more on leverage to fund their investments?

The credit crisis has crossed the Pacific and hit home in Asia and is now even being felt in the streets of Kuala Lumpur, the capital of oil-rich Malaysia.