While the worst seems to be over for the financial sector, this is not a time for complacency or a return to business as usual. With the passage of the Dodd-Frank Act last July, US banking is entering a new era - but a workable system must be based on simplicity.

The perversities of regulation are fast becoming all too clear. Trade is the engine of global economic growth and the means by which indebted Europe and the US can haul themselves out of their malaise.

Anyone that hoped the financial crisis would be the catalyst for substantial change to Germany's three-pillar banking system may be disappointed. The rigid structure that divides the German banking sector into privately owned banks, publicly owned banks and co-operatives seems even now resistant to change.

Was the third quarter a blip or a sign of tougher times ahead? The leading names in the capital markets mostly delivered poor results and the seasonal summer lull can only be part of the reason.

"As long as the music is playing, you've got to get up and dance. We're still dancing," former Citi chief executive Chuck Prince notoriously told the Financial Times as the global financial crisis began to unfold in July 2007.

The Islamic banking and finance sector risks losing a golden opportunity to demonstrate an alternative system that could prevent a future credit crunch and share risks. With the conventional banking sector slowly coming to terms with its high-profile collapses and bailouts, and the Islamic sector suffering only mild aftershocks, why are savers and investors not flocking to sharia-compliant banking? Could Islamic finance lack a certain degree of credibility? And if so, why?

Bolivia is barely recognisable from the state it was in 20 years ago - it now has a budget surplus and a store of foreign currency, and there are even plans to make the country an export hub for electric power and natural gas. Hugh O'Shaughnessy met Bolivia's vice-president Álvaro García Linera to discuss the country's prospects.