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The doctrine of limited liability raises questions about businesses' responsibility for the environmental, social or financial costs of their activities. Tony Curzon Price reflects on the issue in the context of a London conference, and interviews two expert participants.

When the spending bubble popped, it ushered in the era of the incredible shrinking consumer. Demand is weak, and companies are looking to do more with less by stretching their workforce and filling the gaps with cheap labor, even part-timers. Indeed of Brookings' 20 strongest cities have average or below average cost-of-living, and most of those cities have below average wages.

It feels perversely quaint that the national conversation is momentarily focused on the likelihood of insider trading cases dropping on a hive of nefarious and presumably well-connected individuals -- huge cases, we are told via breathless leaks from the federal cops on the beat, cases worth -- are you sitting down? -- tens of millions of dollars. With numbers like these, one can only imagine what's up next -- a crackdown on employees who brazenly pilfered office supplies from their jobs at publicly bailed-out institutions like Bank of America, perhaps?

Many observers assign a large part of the blame for the 2008 financial crisis to the "big three" credit rating agencies, which gave their AAA seal of approval to worthless investments. Now those same agencies are helping to bring the euro zone to its knees -- and no one is trying to stop them.

European Union officials Wednesday were unable to mask their frustration with the downgrade of Greek debt by Standard & Poor's to junk status.

European politicians are fuming over the US credit ratings agencies and their role in various financial crises. But some experts say it was governments who allowed rating firms to gain too much power in the first place.

The fear that began in Athens, raced through Europe, and finally shook the stock market in the United States is now affecting the broader global economy, from the ability of Asian corporations to raise money to the outlook for money-market funds where American savers park their cash.

Will the Greek malaise spread to Portugal? Fears of a national bankruptcy are now also growing in Lisbon, even though the country is capable of getting its debt under control by itself. The problem is that markets no longer have faith in the Portuguese to fix their own affairs.

The Greeks are mainly responsible for their current predicament. But the German government has made the country's situation worse with its lectures and reluctance to provide assistance. Chancellor Angela Merkel is mainly to blame for the fact that German taxpayers now have to suffer.

Greece is only the beginning. The world's leading economies have long lived beyond their means, and the financial crisis caused government debt to swell dramatically. Now the bill is coming due, but not all countries will be able to pay it.

The euro has been rescued for the moment, but European politicians have thrown the foundations of Europe's common currency overboard with their unprecedented bailout package. In the longer term, the dangers of the crisis can only increase, and the flood of billions of euros could also lead to inflation

As China gains dominance on the world stage, more and more multinational corporations will need to rethink their assumptions about competing under its state-capitalism model-one in which the government is the principal economic driver. So says Ian Bremmer, president of the political-risk consulting firm Eurasia Group and author of the upcoming book The End of the Free Market: Who Wins the War Between States and Corporations? In this video interview, Bremmer discusses the fundamental distinctions between state capitalism and free-market economies, as well as the strategic implications this has for Western companies and governments alike.

The United States officials began talking to their counterparts about an American concept: overwhelming force. "It's all about psychology," said the senior official. "You have to convince people that the government will get its act together."

The pain of the European debt crisis is spreading, with the plummeting euro making Chinese companies less competitive in Europe, their largest market, and complicating any move to break the Chinese currency's peg to the dollar.

Brazil and Turkey, which were represented by their presidents in the talks, invested significant diplomatic cache in the negotiations. It is rare for non-permanent members of the Security Council to intervene in a process led by nuclear powers, and in many ways the result could be seen as a revolt by smaller powers over the rights to nuclear power and prestige.

Rumors of the imminent collapse of the eurozone continue to swirl despite the Europeans' best efforts to hold the currency union together. Some accounts in the financial world have even suggested that Germany's frustration with the crisis could cause Berlin to quit the eurozone - as soon as this past weekend, according to some - while at the most recent gathering of European leaders French President Nicolas Sarkozy apparently threatened to bolt the bloc if Berlin did not help Greece. Meanwhile, many in Germany - including Chancellor Angela Merkel herself at one point - have called for the creation of a mechanism by which Greece - or the eurozone's other over-indebted, uncompetitive economies - could be kicked out of the eurozone in the future should they not mend their "irresponsible" spending habits.

China and India stand to lose a lot from reducing their trade with Iran, so the Americans will find it difficult to preserve these giants' commitment to sanctions.

Earlier on Tuesday, French President Nicolas Sarkozy said the nuclear fuel swap with Iran was a "positive step" and it was waiting for Tehran to provide full written details, as China and Lebanon also voiced their support for the new deal.

First the financial crisis, then the Greek debt crisis and now speculative attacks on the euro. As European leaders desperately struggle to stabilize their common currency, concerns over inflation are growing.

Russia and Iran publicly traded barbs on Wednesday, showing strains in their longstanding alliance because of Moscow's support for a new set of American-backed sanctions over the Iranian nuclear program.