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Will the long-awaited recovery in the German real estate market be stopped in its tracks by turmoil in the debt markets? Louise Bowman reports.

Despite reporting its first annual loss in 2007 and forecasts of further credit write-downs in the first quarter, Merrill Lynch is getting out the chequebook for its Latin American business. The firm has gone on a shopping spree and plucked the cream of the Latin American investment banking crop, especially in Brazil.

Last month Euromoney wrote about how the valuations service sector was heating up. Financial data provider Markit subsequently announced a new multi-dealer valuations platform. Chief executive Lance Uggla explains to Alex Chambers how the firm is broadening its offerings from credit to OTC equities.

Highly levered funds are always at the mercy of credit and liquidity suppliers. So be wary of those active in markets where liquidity can rapidly dry up, says Neil Wilson.

There are signs that Venezuela is moving away from the plummeting dollar for some of its oil contracts. Energy minister Rafael Ramírez said last month that his country would insist on payments in euros on some contracts. Ramírez declined to give further details, although the move is bound to further damage relations with the US government. Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez has been critical of the Bush administration’s economic policy, blaming it for the dollar’s slump. He wants Opec members to move from pricing oil in dollars to a basket of currencies.

But lenders will price to encourage trading.

Measures to boost the competitiveness of Brazil’s exporters might well be fruitless.

Far from solving BAA’s financial problems, the CAA’s regulatory review will make life for it even worse.

All market participants must still confront the reality of near total market failure across the debt and money markets, an inability to sell even quality assets for cash or to borrow against them and a complete loss of faith between financial institutions. More public money is surely coming, but how can it repair this?

Unless Japan gets more involved in international capital markets, perhaps through a sovereign wealth fund, it is likely to become increasingly irrelevant in Asian finance.

It’s pitiful trying to blame short sellers for the woes of the financial system.

Are banks biting the hand that feeds them? Perhaps, but what choice do they have?