大象传媒

Business Daily comes from the headquarters of the International Monetary Fund in Washington where top economic policymakers have been wrestling with the implications of the financial crisis. What should governments, central banks and regulators do to get the world economy back on an even keel? The Nobel prize winning economist from Columbia University, Joseph Stiglitz, has long been a kind of intellectual icon for people who are sceptical about the benefits of unregulated capitalism. Andrew Walker asked him whether government spending can stimulate a weak economy?

It must be said the great majority of people speaking at this conference were keen on a more active role for government in steering the economy and preventing crises. But there were exceptions, such as Allan Meltzer of Carniegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania.

Meanwhile, James Srodes in Washington considers a particularly worrying trend facing the over sixties there - many of whom find themselvers looking after both younger and older generations within the same family.