Making money: local currencies and bartering networks bring economics home.
Managing without money may sound like a radical idea, but for most of history - and even in many parts of the world to day - economic life didn't revolve around currency. Homo economicus either bartered or made do with what he caught, foraged or grew himself. While those...

Government debt management in Europe: recent changes in debt managers' strategies.
Abstract This paper presents a survey of changes in the strategies of government debt managers in European countries. These changes were introduced in response to alterations in the working environment of debt managers, like the introduction of the euro, declining government debt ratios, the introduction of electronic...

Raising funds: Salt Spring Island gives national currency a run for its money.
A NUMBER of communities around the world are taking control of their local economies by creating their own currencies. These currencies focus on local control, helping revitalize communities by circulating money within the community rather than allowing wealth to flow out. Since alternative currencies can only be spent locally,...

China's stock market: a marriage of capitalism and socialism.
The rise of China's stock market during the 1990s was nothing short of breathtaking. For more than 30 years after 1949, China was a centrally planned economy in which virtually all enterprises were state owned or collectively owned. Investments were centrally planned and funded by government fiscal grants as...

CO-OPERATION OR CONFRONTATION?
Mark Pearson reviews a recent NZIIA conference on economic and security prospects for the Asia-Pacific region. In the midst of the turmoil afflicting East Asian economies, the NZIIA's recent seminar `Co-operation or Confrontation? Economic and Security Prospects for the Asia-Pacific Region' provided a timely opportunity to consider...

Overseas investors ... thanks but no thanks.
Whilst most of the region's stock markets have been keen to woo institutional money from overseas investors, Tunisia has bucked the trend and kept the doors of its bourse firmly shut. Andrew Album continues our series of reports on the region's stockmarkets. The Tunisian stock exchange, claims its president...

Bahrain: bankers search for new role.
The face of banking and financial markets is changing rapidly. Twenty years ago, Bahrain shrewdly established itself as the regional financial centre for the Gulf. As its neighbours have become more sophisticated, however, it must adapt its role in order to survive. David Cowan examines Bahrain's search for a new...

Rethinking the powers of trade.
The invisible hand of the globalized marketplace is far from benign. It leaves human and environmental destruction behind in its clumsy grasping for power and profit. Those of us committed to creating a just, humane and environmentally robust world need to find and to support a different approach to trade....

Stockmarket update: Israel.
WHEN STOCK MARKET INVESTORS think of emerging markets, their attention focuses on South East Asia. But in 1943, the world's best performing market was Israel, which witnessed the culmination of a five year run which pushed the share index up by 750%. Israel's economy was booming and...

Technical woes to delay PSE dollar trading board.
Byline: JAMES A. LOYOLA The Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) will not push through with its planned opening of its dollar denominated trading (DDT) facility in June this year due to various technical problems in its computer trading systems. In a press briefing, PSE president Ernest...