Toward the end of last year, the 2009 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences was awarded to two American social scientists for their work in describing the numerous relationships within a company or among companies and individuals that shape market behaviour.

As financial services companies across the globe come under intensified scrutiny in the wake of the banking crisis, public confidence in the current financial system remains low. One aspect of the fallout are the rules on the movement of electronic data, which - according to a Microsoft executive - are urgently in need an overhaul. Drew Hillier investigates how data loss and leakage, particularly, is forcing financial services companies to act more efficiently.

Immediately after the Second World War, which left much of Europe's economy landscape in tatters, the country that emerged with the fewest scars was USA. In 1944 after Brenton Woods Accord and IMF, the US dollar become the reserve currency for all capitalist countries of the world and the rest of the currencies, gold and crude oil were compared against it.

The foreign exchange market remains the largest financial market in the world, and the most liquid. And while it experienced a substantial decrease in early 2009, with US$2.9 trillion in average daily volume, a report published recently by Celent estimates the FX market should exceed US$4.0 trillion in average daily turnover by 2010.

According to the latest data, Catastrophe Bonds, aka Cat Bonds, climbed to their highest level this year as hurricane outlooks foesaw a calmer season. As a consequence, the Swiss Re Cat Bond Price Return Index advanced 0.3 percent to 90.56 on Aug. 14, the sixth straight weekly gain, as investors bet insurers are less likely to collect on the securities. Drew Hillier weighs up whether the rise in this form of financial instrument is a case of sheltering from the storm, or banking on calamity.