We’re at that stage of a bull market when the bulls are still thundering but a lot of other folk – the more conservative investors, bankers and regulators – are sounding notes of caution. The phenomenon appears in several guises in this month’s edition of The Banker.

African governments and institutions are becoming increasingly professional, underpinned by an understanding of what is required to thrive in a globalised marketplace, says Patrick Cescau.

Jean-Philippe Cotis asks which kinds of reforms in Europe and Japan would help to reduce the US’s gaping external deficit.

With the global balance of economic power shifting, the role the IMF should play is increasingly uncertain.

National Bank of Greece’s purchase of Turkey’s Finansbank, and other cross-border deals, counter continent’s protectionism adherents.

The Banker magazine has been recording change for 80 years and so our journalists (even though none of us dates back quite that far) are well used to, if not a little blasé about, the phenomenon.

As Barclays CEO John Varley takes the homelessness baton from HSBC co-head of CIBM John Studzinski, they talk to Karina Robinson about charity work and corporate social responsibility.

As his country hosts the EU presidency, Austrian chancellor Wolfgang Schüssel says the European competitiveness agenda can be boosted.

Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez’s anti-US stance is causing consternation in Washington, says Peter Hakim.

Protectionism and nationalism can only harm the reputation of developed countries that use them to retain the status quo.