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A snowboarder in Utah says we're heading for a global liquidity squeeze: capital will self-destruct and the world financial system will need to reinvent itself, as it did after 1929, 1945 and 1971. He may be wrong. If he's right, what does it mean for the dealers and investors who grew rich and famous on global euphoria? David Shirreff reports.

Outside Japan, Asian investors have become a rare breed in recent months. But they still exist, and the one thing they prize above all else is liquidity. Antony Currie reports on attempts to cultivate a group of investors whose importance can only increase.

Asia may be crumbing, and rumours of losses on several investment banks' proprietary trading desks are beginning to do the rounds, but that doesn't appear to be hampering the desire to splash out on lavish Christmas parties.

Which are Asia's most sophisticated borrowers? This is the question Euromoney put to 16 heads of debt syndication in Hong Kong, Singapore and Tokyo. As spreads widen and credit ratings fall, these are lean times for Asian borrowers. Only the best - those who have spent the past few years developing an innovative approach and building up a good name - will be able to get their bonds away. By Nicholas Bradbury.

It is one of the boldest economic plans of the century: China wants to sell or merge its state-owned enterprises - nearly half the country's economy. Jack Lowenstein reports on the difficulties ahead.

Only the best will survive

When the world started to melt

Which are Asia's strongest companies? With the region's corporates facing difficult market conditions, declining stock prices and a credit squeeze, the difference between Asia's many underperformers and its increasingly global star players is likely to grow. Asia's leading analysts gave their views of the best companies by sector and region in Euromoney's annual survey. The results contain a few surprises. In the Indian sub-continent - included this year for the first time - Pakistan's companies are rated higher than their counterparts in India. Research by Rebecca Dobson

Trade unions and opposition parties aren't happy, but Greece's harsh budget may just put the country on course to join the European single currency. Yet, as Robert Minto reports, recent currency volatility and stock-market woes suggest the road ahead may be long and hard

Euromoney's annual ranking of Asian banks reveals a number in severe difficulty. But there is surely worse to come: the effects of the region's currency and stock market problems have not yet registered in many banks' accounts. Our rankings comprise the Japanese top 50, the Asian 100 - for all of Asia excluding Japan - and regional tables for south-east Asia, Australasia, Indian sub-continent and north Asia excluding Japan. By Rebecca Dobson.

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%.