Karina Robinson reviews the main candidates for the top job at the IMF and finds that the front-runner is Rodrigo Rato, Spain’s former finance minister.

Is the Iraq crisis principally about removing a despot from power or is the underlying reality more to do with asserting US global hegemony? Stephen Timewell explores the issues and discusses their implications for banking and finance.

Supachai Panitchpakdi explains why agreement on multilateral trade rules remains some way off, despite the benefits for all.

In theory, enlargement to 25 countries will give the European Union the critical mass necessary to challenge US economic supremacy. In practice, the EU has found decision-making increasingly difficult with just 15 members.

Henry Harington looks at the effect of September 11 on foreign banks in London, and finds many questioning their policy of maintaining all their operations under one roof.

European and American banks will have to cut costs, deepen customer relationships and search for new opportunities in order to weather the US slowdown.

Asia’s foremost statesman Lee Kuan Yew led Singapore from third-world backwater to first-world city in three decades. Now senior minister of the island state, he remains forthright in his views, here tackling questions on China’s stability, global banks and capital controls.

Concern is growing that promises of more IMF dialogue with the private sector may be difficult to meet.