Bond markets lost some of their sheen in 2010 as European governments backed bailouts of member states while investors decided to bet against them or dump them. Recovery in developed markets may still get off to a slow start in 2011, but there might still be opportunities for smart investors. Neil Hodge reports

Martyn Cornell finds out why winning the World Cup is about more than football for Qatar

With the price of bullion hitting an all-time high of $1,430.95
on December 7, 2010 – this on the back of a near decade long
bull run – the argument that the yellow metal was now entering
‘investment bubble’ territory would, in normal times, be a
persuasive one, writes Martin Morris

The banking industry is using cashless technologies at point
of sale terminals with credit or debit cards. By linking these card accounts to a bank account, the banks ensure that the customer
is still firmly in their grasp, says Shirley Redpath

World Finance announces its Man of the Year for 2010. Following great deliberation within the editorial department the magazine is proud to endow the great accolade to Ford’s number one, Alan Mulally

The once booming economy of the Celtic Tiger has crashed and burned after the global financial crisis exposed cracks in its financial services regulation and banking practices, triggering a property market collapse. The government is trying to act, but has few supporters so far. Neil Hodge reports

The global commercial aviation industry is returning to economic health. But liquidity remains tight, and US and European airlines are on the warpath, writes Martin Morris

Like many other advanced economies, France can no longer afford the generous pension schemes that were agreed in very different times. Selwyn Parker asks whether the concept of retirement is truly under threat

Find oil one day and you will find new friends the next. Since emerging from a position of complete irrelevance as a player on the African hydrocarbons landscape in the early part of the first decade of the new millennium to become Africa’s latest petrostate at the dawn of the second, Uganda has acquired lots of them

Our panel of experts, Dr Bob Swarup, Frank Feather and Leslie L. Kossoff tackle a series of questions put to them by the editors of World Finance

When President Goodluck Jonathan announced ambitious plans in August to privatise Nigeria’s crippled state power sector by the middle of 2011, power producers from China to Germany, and from Brazil to Canada, stood up and paid attention

If 2010 is to go down as a year of any great significance for the ETF industry it will be because assets under management for ETCs breached the $300bn barrier for the first time

PE firms are dipping their toes into emerging markets and are winning big deals, says Neil Hodge

Asia has traditionally been reluctant to sell off parts of its industry, particularly to foreign investors. But there are signs that this is about to change as governments recognise that they need more foreign direct investment and that these enterprises need to be better managed. Neil Hodge reports

President Nicolas Sarkozy has set an ambitious agenda of creating a new international monetary system and taming commodity speculation for France’s presidency of the G20 global economic leadership forum from November