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Americans have been having a lot of fun with fundrace.org, a new website that searches the public record for political donations. Euromoney, of course, was most interested in gifts from US bank CEOs. George W Bush came out well on top, garnering the maximum $2,000 donation from almost every CEO on the list. But there were surprises among the Democrats. Dick Gephardt pulled in more donations than any other candidate and Howard Dean got none at all.

US treasury bond yields caught out many investors in the first quarter, tightening sharply below 4% in February and once more wrong-footing many who had been expecting that they would widen.

If you think loan trading is colourless and unexciting, take a look at Thomas Duetoft, head of European loan trading at Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein, and his colleague Tom Johannessen, vice-president of loan trading.

Last month, at Hong Kong's biggest party, the annual Rugby Sevens festival, an unusual trend emerged among Hong Kong's investment banks. The softer side of those hard-nosed masters of the universe was on display, manifested in the décor of their hospitality suites.

Several fund managers are taking advantage of the increased interest in currency markets by setting up high-margin currency hedge funds. But before they invest in such products, investors should examine the offerings closely. Julie Dalla-Costa reports.

Money will, of course, remain cheap. Indeed, the forward market now forecasts that the Federal Reserve will not raise interest rates this year. But it has been cheap for a long time. It has already driven massive amounts into equities and reduced volatility to historical lows. In early January, the options put-to-call ratio reached levels indicating that no-one wanted to take out any insurance against equity markets falling. However, the recent turn in these indicators suggests that a wall of worry is now being built.

Results of Euromoney’s biggest ever credit research poll indicate that the development of relationships with continental European investors is crucial to success.

Russia's dependence on energy exports - and high energy prices - is growing. The government wants to play a bigger part in fostering this golden goose and seems to have found a subtle way of doing so without renationalization. Ben Aris reports.

The days when unselective punts on the Moscow bourse could bring triple-digit returns are probably over. Analysts now point to more modest gains from cautious trawls of smaller companies, private-equity funds and real estate. Ben Aris reports.

Just a few months ago Peru looked a shaky bet for international investors. Now bondholders can breathe a little easier. Peruvian president Alejandro Toledo still has the lowest popularity rating in Latin America and economic growth is slowing but Peru's macroeconomic fundamentals are solid and in keeping with IMF demands. It all looked very different in mid-January. Spreads on Peru's debt widened by more than 100 basis points as investors wondered whether Toledo's two-and-a-half-year-old government was on its way out amid corruption scandals. Four ministers lost their jobs in just three months and Toledo, who has a popularity rating of just 9%, struggled to distance himself from corruption scandals.

Liquidity poll April 2004

Anvar Saidenov, the new governor of the National Bank of Kazakhstan, talks about inflation, the tenge, and social development. What are your priorities as the incoming governor of Kazakhstan's national bank?