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The pace of yen borrowing in international markets and in the Japanese domestic market by non-Japanese issuers has slowed just slightly in 2001, following last year’s boom. Downgrades of some large corporate issues have meant losses for Japanese buyers. But foreign names are still issuing yen bonds in healthy volumes and will continue to do so for as long as Japanese investors are deprived of attractive domestic alternatives.

With the domestic economy still in a weak state, Japanese corporates are reluctant to go to the relatively expensive international bond markets for funding. Domestic borrowing is cheaper, particularly as banks are being encouraged by the government to lend on easy terms despite the hangover of bad debt. Only the highest rated Japanese borrowers are raising funds in international markets.

Iceland’s economy has boomed since joining the European Economic Area in 1993 brought market-based reforms. The economy has diversified, but now the government wants to rein growth in. That’s hit the stock market.

There has been a spate of investment-grade companies getting downgraded to junk, or even default status over the past 18 months, but to see the triple-A-rated securitized bonds of what was an investment-grade company at the start of 2000 hit the ropes is something new and more shocking.

Washington was in a tizzy last month after the sudden defection from the Republican party of senator James Jeffords of Vermont. Jeffords' historic move tipped control of an evenly divided US Senate to the Democrats and it came within a whisker of changing the fate of the Bush administration's tax proposals. But Jeffords decided to stay in the Republican fold for a few more days until Congress could finish work on that all-important bill. Big bucks had been riding on the outcome for Wall Street.

Just when bond investors thought it was safe to go back into the telecom sector, Moody's dropped a bombshell. By downgrading British Telecom's long term debt two notches to Baa1 last month, it threw a sector showing glimmers of recovery into disarray. Most astonishing to investors and galling to BT's management was the fact that Moody's chose May 10, the day BT announced its rights issue - the lynchpin of its debt reduction plans - to break the bad news, fuelling speculation that it was privy to particularly damming information about the company.

For a nation of such a small population - just under 280,000 - Icelanders have managed to achieve a remarkable amount of firsts. The world's first national parliament, the Althingi, was established in 930 AD after a group of pagans from Norway had travelled to Iceland in search of freedom from the oppressive but impressively named King Harald Fairhair. The world's first elected female head of state, Vigdís Finnbógadottir gained office in Iceland in 1980. The country was also the birthplace of the first European to set foot on the continent of North America, the intrepid Leifur Eiríksson achieving this feat in the year 1000 AD, beating Christopher Columbus to the accolade by almost 500 years.

That Goldman Sachs feels it must write to the Federal Accounting Standards Board (FASB) to ask that it consider making banks mark loans to market is telling. It's the clearest signal yet that the pure investment banks are, finally, concerned at the potential which lurks within the large commercial and universal banks.

The woman wags a hectoring finger at the minister. "If a child is unwell," she says, "its mother does not give it an injection of poison." She and a group of trade union colleagues are accusing the minister of doing just that by privatizing the aluminium plant in Chattisgarh state. For 40 minutes they sit in his office and plead with Arun Shourie, minister in charge of privatization, administrative reform and a panjandrum range of critical issues concerning modernization of India's economy, to roll back the privatization of Bharat Aluminium (Balco).

Bacelius Ruru seems an unlikely troubleshooter in the rough and tumble world of Indonesia's financial sector, which is plagued by exceptional levels of corporate debt, continuing accusations of corruption and persistent political instability.

When its audacious bid to hire 40 debt markets bankers from CSFB failed, Barclays Capital quickly turned its attention to Deutsche Bank. In an effort to build up its US and global debt businesses, it has been quietly hiring for months. Now the big name new recruits from Deutsche must ensure this investment bears fruit.

Monetary union’s effect on European investment patterns is giving rise to a host of new benchmarks. In both equities and bonds, index providers are scrambling for continental superiority. New providers can win market share quickly but the established names are fighting back.