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When Brazil's stock and bond markets lost a third of their value in late October as part of the Asian contagion, the country's central bank intervened quickly to defend the real against currency speculators, raising interest rates from 21% to 43%.

Latest modelling techniques mean rocket scientists at banks can finally get to grips with the age-old problem of credit risk. It means a new lease of life for old portfolio theory and even older maths, as Mark Parsley finds out.

They are two of Asia's premier fixed-income investors. They are also former investment bankers. Euromoney invited Brian Lippey of Tokai Asia and Albert Cobetto of Prudential Asia to dinner to chat about dressing down in Hong Kong, how it feels to switch to the buy side and which houses have survived the stock market crisis best. Steven Irvine poured the wine and asked the questions.

It is hard to judge which was the worst piece of news to hit the Malaysian stock market and corporate community in the last few months. Was it the remarks made by prime minister Mahathir Mohamad blaming international speculators for the Asian meltdown?

Now that the high profile equity and corporate finance advisory parts of BZW have been sold, members of the surviving debt markets division, Barclays Capital, have a tricky time ahead. They must convince their customers that the advantages of dealing with a fully integrated investment bank - advantages which they loudly proclaimed for the 11 years in which Barclays spent £750 million ($1.2 billion) trying to build such a creature - are bunk. Now they must argue that the best type of investment bank to deal with is one focused on its chosen strengths. But the question persists: does Barclays Capital have any strengths beyond sterling bonds and syndicated loans? Even while peddling their new line, those at Barclays Capital must privately question how deep is their own parent's commitment to its new-form investment bank.

You ain't seen nothin' yet

No one expects to spend their whole career with one employer, but the ability to move from one job to another with relative ease is taken for granted. But what if your career suffers because you've been made the target of defamatory rumours, or because your company is found to be engaged in disreputable behaviour? A decision in the British House of Lords last month could help, as it now entitles employees to sue for damages called stigma compensation.

Just about anything. China could launch economic warfare against the west, the US could start raising trade barriers against imports, South Korean banks could dump their Russian bonds, the IMF could run out of money, European monetary union could start amidst economic turmoil. Brian Caplen explores the financial shocks waiting to happen.

Investing in the Indian capital market is sometimes called the great paper chase. Share certificates come in tiny lots of 50 to 100 shares, clean deliveries are uncertain and the process of transfer can take up to a year at the end of which an investor may discover that his shares are fake, stolen or lost.

Issuer: Matav

The world is facing its worst economic crisis since the 1930s and no-one has a solution to the problems, least of all the IMF.