Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz says the US has failed to fix the underlying problems of its banking system after the credit crunch and the collapse of Lehman Brothers.

"In the US and many other countries, the too-big-to-fail banks have become even bigger," Stiglitz said in an interview overnight in Paris. "The problems are worse than they were in 2007 before the crisis."

Dirk J Bezemer from Groningen University has presented a paper on Understanding Financial Crisis Through Accounting Models.

This paper presents evidence that accounting (or flow-of-fund) macroeconomic models helped anticipate the credit crisis and economic recession. Equilibrium models ubiquitous in mainstream policy and research did not.

Foxtons, the now cash-strapped estate agency that came to epitomise the London housing boom, is in talks with banks about a debt-for-equity swap that would see lenders agree to write off between £60m and £90m in return for taking a large stake in the company.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2009/apr/12/foxtons-debt-write-off-business 

Federal Reserve chief Ben Bernanke said on Tuesday that there were initial signs that the prolonged US recession may be easing sighting that "tentative signs that the sharp decline in economic activity may be slowing," from data on home sales, home-building and consumer spending, including sales of new motor vehicles.

http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news-world/tentative-signs-us-recession-easing-fed-chief-20090414-a6d5.html