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On the evening before violent protesters disrupted this year's IMF/World Bank meeting in Prague, Jim Wolfensohn, president of the World Bank joined a panel discussing globalization with some untypical guests: Hong Kong trade union leader Elizabeth Tang and Paul Hewson, better known as Bono, lead singer of the Irish rock group U2.

Not only western governments are worried by the oil price. Oil wealth has left Arabian Gulf countries ill-equipped to develop dynamic economies that can cope with the needs of growing populations. Abu Dhabi is aware of the dangers of this inertia but Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Abdullah is the man doing most to change attitudes and structures. Michael Field reports

Leading Dutch telecommunications provider KPN faces an uncertain future following the failure of its attempt to link up with Telefonica in Spain. Analysts see an obvious solution to its small home base: it must move into new markets and expand its subscriber numbers in order to survive. The company has been trying to do exactly this. But it has strained its finances and its credit rating in the attempt. Andrew Rosenbaum reports

The recent mergers of CSFB with DLJ and JP Morgan with Chase signal a new desperation among those near bulge bracket firms to amass the scale, capital strength and full product capability they consider crucial if they are ever to gain entry to the very top ranks of global investment banking. In recent years, Wall Street firms have busily allied with retail distributors and acquired specialist boutique firms. But such full-blown mergers of large investment banks are something quite new. For these deals to succeed, profound misgivings will have to be overcome among many senior managers at DLJ and JP Morgan: firms that have traditionally stayed aloof from Wall Street alliances and have strong cultures. Although it's not clear these mergers will help firms leap ahead, it's quite certain the merging firms' rivals will take advantage of any discontent. Antony Currie reports

The news last month that Optimark has failed in its bid to change the dynamics of US equities trading stands as a timely reminder of the difficulties e-commerce start-ups face.

One of the longest-running sagas in asset management is finally set to come to a head - well, in another year's time at least.

Germany Inc doesn’t like outsiders, especially those challenging the fundamental building blocks of German finance. Cobra, a group of opportunistic shareholders, took on Commerzbank and forced it to consider change. But things didn’t go as planned and both sides are licking their wounds. What’s next in the game of who gets what and who pairs off with whom? David Shirreff reports

Investors responding to Global Investors’ poll voted the following brokers as the best in Europe. By Ben Wright

At the World Bank/IMF annual meetings in Hong Kong three years ago the powerful interim committee gave the IMF a green light for yet another mission. The fund was keen to promote unrestricted international capital movements.

Following a banner year for convertible bonds in 1999, bankers had hoped that the European corporate restructuring wave, capital gains tax changes in Germany, and benign economic conditions would spur the market to even greater heights in 2000. They have been disappointed by a light new issue calendar. However the market is hopeful of an upturn. Chris Cockerill reports

A crucial prerequisite of Japanese economic rejuvenation looks to be a burst of merger and acquisitions activity Or so many of the investment banks that would arrange such deals say. With the notable exception of the auto industry, corporate Japan is more hesitant. Legal changes have made M&A easier, but corporate culture remains a stumbling block. Kevin Rafferty reports

Just what is Goldman Sachs doing buying Spear Leeds Kellogg for $6.5 billion? Is this not the same Goldman Sachs which just six months ago, together with Merrill Lynch and Morgan Stanley Dean Witter, was sending executives down to Washington to lobby regulators at the SEC and politicians in Congress, to take steps which might do away with such businesses? And didn't Merrill buy a similar operation in June, Herzog Heine Geduld? The object of the big firms' desire was a central limit order book (CLOB) for US equities trading. Without it, ran their argument, equities trading would continue to fragment between electronic order matching via ECNs, and electronic quote-driven market making systems. Fragmentation, they continued, would run counter to a broker's duty to execute at the best price, so a far better platform for clients would be the CLOB.