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A growth in bank note forgery is what most worries Spaniards about the introduction of a new currency. The euro could easily become a counterfeiter's dream if Spain's central bank does not take sufficient action to alert businesses and the public. The Bank of Spain (Banco de España) believes it has done so. The problem for the Bank for Spain - and other European central banks - is that to prevent false bills being accepted the public needs to be educated about the euro notes, so that people learn to recognise the new currency and can identify fake notes. On the other hand, to release too much information before the euro is actually in circulation is an invitation to counterfeiters to adjust their printing machines and start producing fake notes well in advance. There is a clear trade-off.

"Long-term growth in the asset-backed market will come not from banks but from corporates." So reckons Maarten Stegwee, head of European asset finance at Credit Suisse First Boston. Speaking at Euromoney's global borrowers' and investors' forum in London last month, Stegwee explained why so many observers expect explosive growth in corporate asset-backed issuance. "If we had the luxury of redesigning the corporate balance sheet from scratch to create the best possible long-term capital structure, securitization would have a big role," he said.

When SunTrust Banks put in a hostile bid for Wachovia in mid-May in an attempt to steal it away from friendly bidder First Union, Wachovia felt it needed to bolster its advisory team. It called Goldman Sachs.

Speculators may be the stars in a bull market but in a falling one they are the villains.

Is Thailand's prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra just an entrepreneurial businessman in a hurry, anxious to bring to the country the same benefits that he won in the telecoms business, where he became a US dollar billionaire and one of world's richest 500 people in quick time? Or does he just love power so much that he will do anything to keep it?

Pity the securitization banker, spending endless days in gloomy Detroit or tedious Wilmington, Delaware, arranging auto loan or credit-card deals. Wouldn't it be better if asset-backed securities were issued from tropical locations with gorgeous beaches and spectacular volcanoes?

Before the break-up of the USSR, a tale was often told of two old men sitting on a bench in front of the Winter Palace in Russia's second city. "Where were you born?" asks the first, "St. Petersburg," the second replies. "Where did you grow up?" "Petrograd." "Where do you live now?" "Leningrad." "Where would you like to live?" "St Petersburg."

Michael Bloomberg offered journalists his financial wisdom in a speech at the New York Financial Writers' Club dinner at the Marriot Marquis in Times Square last month.