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With broken china still littering the office of the World Bank’s chief economist, Nicolas Stern finally arrived this July to start picking up the pieces. Stern, a mild-mannered man with degrees from Oxford and Cambridge, comes to Washington after six years as chief economist at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. His predecessor, the celebrated and unconventional Joseph Stiglitz, raised an unprecedented ruckus during his brief but stormy tenure in the job. His final controversy was the manner of Stern’s appointment to succeed him. So what is Stern’s agenda now, asks James Smalhout

Protests against her austerity package and calls for her resignation have failed to stop Brigita Schmögnerovà from doing the most exciting job she has ever had. By Jonathan Brown.

Delegates at the IMF meeting in Prague this month will have a variety of cultural events to enjoy away from the main event.

In his first months as president Vladimir Putin has been gathering together the threads of power. Oligarchs have been curbed, regional governors put in their place and former KGB colleagues given influential positions. How Putin will use his authority remains uncertain. He seems intent on reforming the tax code and the customs administration and is committed to helping small and medium-size enterprises. But a start has barely been made on economic liberalization and the reduction of state intervention. Ben Aris reports

The prolonged corporate finance spree is offering law firms a rich source of premium deals. However, winning the business places a heavy burden on staff. By Nigel Page

Issuer: Dow Chemical Amount: $300 million Type of issue: Online domestic US corporate bond auction Launch date: August 15

It has been a busy year for presidential and parliamentary elections - and coup attempts. Throw in worker unrest (Peru, Ecuador, Ghana), violent separatism in Indonesia and looming emerging market elections and it would be wise to expect big changes in Euromoney’s first Country Risk ranking in 2001. Keri Geiger reports

Latin America’s banks have mostly managed to weather the region’s economic slump. Relative currency movements account in large part for changes in the Latin 100 rankings since last year’s snapshot was taken a month before Brazil’s currency devaluation. Despite shaky asset quality no Mexican bank listed in the tables rises fewer than two places. Argentina also makes a good showing as the one-for-one dollar peg helps to shore up balance sheets. Brazil’s banks are the region’s biggest, though returns are distorted by the exceptional interest rate levels of March 1999. Data from Moody’s.

By most economic and development measures, China would seem to have taken a firm lead over India in the great race between these two Asian contenders to become regional and global economic superpowers. Yet India, despite its slower economic growth, its poorer yet faster-increasing population and its confused politics, now has thriving new-economy sectors.

Some emerging markets have found the route to salvation, others are a whisker from damnation. By Michael Peterson

“Banks will need stronger cost discipline and controls to preserve margins”