Global payment imbalances between the United States and the Asian economies are now at their widest level in the past sixty years.

With Europe collapsing, China stumbling, and India and Brazil retreating from full free market reform, we’re the last stable, pro-growth economy left.  

Can the current post-Bretton Woods international monetary system prevent a return to the beggar-thy-neighbor policies and competitive devaluations that so harmed international prosperity in the 1930s? What are the system's flaws? Can they be corrected, and if so, how? An expert panel will address these and related issues.

We simply have to face the fact that banking is fundamentally risky. As I decided long ago when working in banks, the reason we needed to wear dark suits and have classic buildings was to look conservative in order to offset the real riskiness of what we were doing. 

As the European debt crisis now knocks on the Italy and Spain's door, it is well to recall that the Euro was a flawed idea from its very inception. The following considerations make it highly improbable that the Euro will survive in its present form by end-2012.

China and Russia have decided to renounce the U.S. dollar and want to use their own currencies for bilateral trade in an attempt to lodge a complaint about its mismanagement.

Lachman pushes for a floating exchange rate in theGulf countries.

Read this with charts as a PDF 

In the months ahead, there will be a renewed intensification of the European debt crisis that could have major implications for the US economy.