How things changed

To understand where the financial industry should go next, it’s worth addressing when and why things became so different.

The early 1980s witnessed profound change. The predominant thinking that business is business and banking is banking – the paradigm of the years before – transformed to a different kind of economic thinking championed by the new financial liberalism of the UK and United States, and echoed by much of mainland Europe.

Banks became businesses and started to grow. As they did, they started to trade on their own account, producing greater profits from the financial markets than from traditional relationship banking, and embracing a short-term focus on maximising profit. The link with the real economy and retail and business customers started to unravel, to the extent that someBush Wants Money for War in Iraq

President Bush says Congress must provide what he says are vital funds for U.S. troops before lawmakers leave for Christmas break. VOA White House correspondent Scott Stearns has the story.

In his weekly radio address, President Bush says time is running out for Congress to fund troops in Iraq.

"Our men and women on the front lines will be spending this holiday season far from their families and loved ones," said Mr. Bush. "And this Christmas, they deserve more than words from Congress. They deserve action."

The Senate Friday authorized nearly $700 billion in military spending for 2008, including nearly $200 billion for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, but Congress authorizing money is not the same as spending it.

That is expected to happen in