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George Soros, billionaire speculator and philanthropist, was in a bad mood when he addressed the US Russian Investment Conference in Boston last month. On November 6, "40 hooded goons" raided the Moscow office of his Open Russia philanthropic venture, and took away boxes of files.

From banking to bongos. Until 2001, Jay MacDonald was a nickel trader, most recently for Standard Bank in London. But 18 months ago he ditched his day job and six-figure salary to become a professional bongo drum player.

Long-term themes, such as the US current account deficit and output gap, have caught the forex market's attention and will be crucial to the dollar exchange rate. Lara Rhame reports

Activity might be picking up in M&A departments but that hasn't stemmed the flow of experienced bankers willing to make the leap into corporate in-house teams. Partly it's a case of unemployed corporate financiers taking any job on offer. Recruiters say that the candidate pool in M&A is still much bigger than the number of jobs available, and there are now more positions going at corporates. "The money's nothing like what you get in the good times at a bank, but we have got corporate assignments on our books at the moment, but not banking ones, which speaks for itself," says David Timson, senior partner of recruitment firm The Curzon Partnership.

Has Silicon Valley finally got its groove back? Venture capital investment in start-up companies rose to $35 million in the third quarter, up 36% on the previous three months. M&A activity is also rising. And talk of a $20 billion initial public offering by Google is generating the kind of buzz last experienced in 1999.

Greek GDP growth has outpaced that of EU peers since 1996 but underlying fiscal imbalances exacerbated by faltering privatization and the inevitable passing of the Olympics effect look set to slow it down. Dimitris Kontogiannis reports.

BCP's small size gives it an advantage when trading the sort of Latin companies it targets - those that operate beneath the big boys' radar - Felix Salmon reports.

CEO, the Americas Society

After losing its way in the 1990s Gartmore seems to have turned the corner by emphasizing alternative investments, especially hedge funds and unusual techniques such as managers running long-only and hedge funds simultaneously. Julie Dalla-Costa reports.

Economic recovery and rallying equity markets have finally persuaded companies to acquire growth and market share once more. But M&A bankers determined to take cheer from October's rally should bear in mind another trend: corporates taking as much as possible of the process in house. Kathryn Tully reports.

One of the main drivers of economic growth in eastern Europe has been the accession of its states to Nato. Julian Evans meets Bruce Jackson, the former investment banker who made it happen.

? Ratings for the Thailand government’s long-term foreign currency bonds have been raised by Moody’s Investor Service, as has the ceiling for foreign currency bank deposits and the foreign currency ceilings for short-term notes and deposits.