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The article assesses the global bond market and investor concerns which may impact hedge funds and related parts of the economy. Covenant lite loans, buy outs, payment in kind notes, debt financing offerings from banks and bridge equity finance are covered. The article expresses concern over risky financial arrangements and states investors are looking for safe investments in increasing numbers.

Contends that the only thing standing between Brazil and Asia-like rates of economic growth is poor government. How Brazil has changed for the worse; Disintegration of Brazil's society; High inflation rates; Debt; Comments from a paper by Rudiger Dornbusch, an economist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Brazil's resources, including enthusiasm and entrepreneurialism.

"Hope" and "history" are two words Brazilians often use in talking of their new president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who took office on January 1st, 2003. He has already made history by becoming the first left-winger to be elected to the office, by a landslide; it is a sign of how much Brazil's democracy has matured that nobody is surprised that not a peep has come from the armed forces, who ruled from 1964 to 1985. The hope is that Lula, as he is universally known, who was born poor and came to politics via the factory floor and the picket line, will restore Brazil's economic fortunes in a way that lifts up the poorest in a notoriously unequal society. In an emotional inauguration that drew 100,000 supporters to Brasilia, Lula promised to wage war on hunger and unemployment without upsetting Brazil's fragile finances. He takes charge of a country in financial peril. Brazil's debts frighten its creditors: net public debt is nearly 60% of GDP, some $250 billion, and net foreign debt, both public and private, is $165 billion. Over the past year, fears of default, stoked by Argentina's insolvency and the past radicalism of Lula and his Workers' Party (PT), helped push up interest rates and the value of the dollar, to which much of Brazil's local-currency debt is linked. Since the final weeks of the election campaign, Lula has worked hard to turn investor panic into mere wariness. Some of his ideas are likely to come from Marcos Lisboa, the economic-policy secretary and co-author of "Lost Agenda", a recent paper that advocated microeconomic reforms, such as trimming the role of Brazil's overgrown labour courts. The new government seems likely to adopt a pragmatic stance on trade policy, despite the PT's traditional support for protectionism. Brazil's prospects turn on whether Lula can turn these pragmatic intentions into policy achievements.

The article focuses on two papers examining the impact that stock market crashes have on the economy. It states that research from the National Bureau of Economic Research found that the level of debt tied to a stock market crash impacts the level of recessions after stock market crashes. It mentions research from the Centre for Economic Policy Research examined 400 years of asset-price bubbles and found how assets are financed influences the consequences of a burst economic bubble.

The article focuses on the dilemma facing the Ministry of Finance in Japan regarding the banking system. The Ministry is having a hard time dealing with the banking system's problem. It has recommended to use public money to clear the debt of banks but tax papers would not agree to such an idea. They hate the idea of subsidizing strong banks like Daiwa Bank. The Ministry, to be fair, does not have any plan to give money to bankers but only to depositors at risks. The catch, however, is that some of the depositors are strong banks. It is suggested that depositors should be bailed out by an expanded deposit-insurance scheme. In return, banks are required to disclose information about their debts.