Among some of the voices which are calling for more attention to the nature of the current US financial crisis and for a more disinterested view of the need for state intervention, an influencial one is that of George Soros. His book "The New Paradigm for Financial Markets: The Credit Crash of 2008 and What it Means", being released in May, challenges the prevailing sanguine view on the intensity and implications of the crisis. This review is based on a reading of the digital edition available from various ebook sellers and his recent speeches.

The vicious series of attacks on China against the backdrop of the Beijing Olympics 2008 actually reflects the discomfort of many countries, the developed foremost among them, with China’s status as the emerging economic super power, strengthened by its sheer size in terms of market and labour force, its stable polity and rapidly growing infrastructure.

The combination of stagnant or falling output and rising prices in the US economy has raised fears of a stagflation not only in the US but in the world economy as well. This article argues that this prediction may well be true, though not on the basis of the monetarist explanation but rather depends ultimately on international political economy and the relative strength of different groups in the world economy.

With the crisis in the financial system in the US, the days of deregulated finance seems to be over, not only in the US but globally. Finance capital, which has so far systematically tried to undermine the state and demanded autonomy for all its actions, is now calling to that same state to save finance from itself. But this cannot occur without the state at least trying to reassert some control over finance.

Interestingly, the very financial liberalisation that created the problems epitomised by the sub-prime crisis was predicated on a critique of the efficacy and correctness of intervention by the state. But recent developments show that bail-outs by the government of institutions that are weakened by wrong financial decisions are now taken for granted, thus legitimising interventionism. Can the "problem" that liberalisation was directed to "solve" now itself become the solution to the problems that liberalisation creates?

The depreciation of the US dollar has been closely bound up with the movement of oil prices, as world oil trade is typically denominated in dollars. Yet this relationship may now be under threat as the dollar continues to depreciate and the US economy tips into recession. This article examines how oil prices have changed with different numeraires, and considers the implications for the future of the oil-dollar nexus.

One global fall-out of the sub-prime crisis in the US is a liquidity squeeze that central banks in the developed countries are attempting to counter by pumping liquidity into the system and reducing interest rates. This is indeed paradoxical, since the crisis in the first place was a result of an excessive build up of liquidity in the international system, leading to a synchronized boom in stock and real estate markets across the globe. Explaining the paradox requires understanding how the liquidity spiral occurs and how such liquidity is put to use by a liberalized and globalized financial system.

With the US economy clearly tipping into recession, international attention is now focussed on the extent to which China and India can create an alternative growth pole for the world economy through their increasing demand. In this article, the authors assess the potential for China to play such a role by analysing its trade pattern with developing Asia.

China's growing presence in Africa has led to arguments that the country is seeking to meet its growing requirements of primary products, including oil, by building a relationship reminiscent of a colonial past with many African countries. In this article, the authors examine what the evidence reveals about this relationship.