The article analyses a recently released World Bank report on Sri Lanka, titled, ''Sri Lanka: Connecting People to Prosperity''. It points out that the main weakness of the report stems from its neo-liberal premise that places market and market forces at a pre-eminent position. Further, it argues that economic development anywhere in the world, with the exception of a handful of countries, has resulted from correct industrial policy rather than from unconditional faith in market forces.

Sometimes heterodox macroeconomic policies
can be more effective and successful than standard prescriptions in coping with
the adverse effects of global economic crises. This article compares the post-crisis experience of two transition economies, Hungary and Uzbekistan, to see which strategy has fared better.

In a tribute to Dr. K.N. Raj the author remembers him as an iconic figure, a giant of a person both in terms of intellect and humanity. He notes that a shift in Dr. Raj's overall trend of thought from an emphasis on constraints on the supply side to the problem of demand is one of his most outstanding, but little-known, contributions.

Across the world governments are debating whether it is time to exit from their fiscal response to the global crisis and return to austerity and fiscal consolidation. This may be premature, since the question whether there was indeed such a generalized and adequate fiscal response that triggered a recovery remains unanswered.

Grain utilization is undergoing changes with the advent of biofuels. Replacing fossil fuels by biofuels like ethanol has raised a conflict between the usage of cereals for food and fuel. The last few years has witnessed a large-scale diversion of corn to ethanol distilleries in the USA. This adds a new dimension to the food-feed competition that emerged in the 20th century and characterized the world's use of grains after World War II.

Current expenses of hosting the G20 talks in Canada is costing Canadian taxpayers around $416,000 a minute, at a time when most Canadians themselves are facing a choice between food bill and rent. This reflects the basic characteristic of the G20 itself, where the leaders are more interested in protecting the interest of the financial sector at the expense of those worst affected by the present crisis.

The mainstream view in the West has long held that the renminbi is undervalued, and has been advocating a revaluation of the currency. Their insistence that currency appreciation should happen through nominal revaluation, rather than only through real appreciation, is best understood as reflective of speculative interests and detrimental to the developmental interests of China given that it would forfeit the country's ability to appreciate through gradually rising wages, contrary to the claims of those leading the debate in the West.

The financial reform legislation passed by the U.S. Senate can help plug, at least partially, the loopholes that allowed frenzied activity in commodity futures markets and generated severe price volatility in many primary commodities. In fact, given the tremendous influence of the U.S. in shaping financial systems globally, even these relatively limited new regulations, if they actually come into play, could force some positive changes elsewhere as well.