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.

The crazy and unsynchronized tango between financial markets and governments in the global economy in the past few months, in particular Europe, has been as bizarre as anything that could be imagined. It is really a case of the stupidity of markets being magnified by the apparently even greater stupidity of economic policy makers, who seem to be undertaking knee-jerk responses to changes in market sentiment, rather than engaging in strategies based on an appreciation of actual macroeconomic processes.

The formation of the European Union was an ambitious project, both politically and also economically. Its success in the past is laudable given the differences it had to overcome between members with long histories of antagonism. However, in the present crisis, this remarkable process is under threat of breaking down, as the stronger economies become more inward looking to protect their perceived self interest.

Using the financial balance approach, the authors highlight some of the key aspects of the eurozone predicament, and argue that until more investors and policy makers can understand the true nature of the various predicaments facing the eurozone, and the inherent design flaws exhibited in the European Monetary Union and the Stability and Growth Pact, odds are that precious time will simply be wasted trying to make people believe the shock and awe fix is already in.