To Devalue or Not to Devalue: That is the question in Latvia, which is facing the worst recession in the former Eastern bloc. So far they're not devaluing their currency; it's risky, but if it works, it could set a powerful precedent for other small, struggling economies.

Uncle Sam $68 Billion Richer: Ten of the nation's largest banks paid back portions of their TARP money yesterday.

BRICs Still Down with Dollars: Remember that whole spat about the demise of the dollar as the global reserve currency? Whole lotta nothing. BRIC leaders met in Russia this week, but were unable to come to an agreement on a call for a shift away from the greenback.

The Warm Cozy Capitalist Manifesto: Did you like NEWSWEEK's cover story this week? The Atlantic's Derek Thompson was not so into it, arguing Fareed Zakaria should rationalize less and criticize more when it comes to financial follies. In the name of the free exchange of ideas, we at the WON blog encourage you to weigh both views.

Circling Above Wall Street: Could foreign banks do to Wall Street what Japan once did to Detroit? They're busy buying up lots of assets, but questions remain as to whether they can sustain the expansion, given how frequently past efforts to grab business from their US rivals have fizzled.

Brave New Banking World: The Obama administration is set to announce new rules for the banking system today. Simon Johnson has some insights on who's pulling the strings.

Carrots, the New Treasuries: A joint OECD-UN report says agriculture is proving more resilient than other sectors in the economic downturn, predicting that prices will rise 10-20 percent over the next 10 years. Looks like Jim Rogers was onto something...

The Revolution Will Be Twitterized: Social networking just picked up more street cred. President Obama told CNBC that he was "not meddling" in the dispute over Iran's election, but news came out yesterday that the State Department asked Twitter to postpone a scheduled upgrade so as not to interrupt use by Iranian protestors.

Too Good to Be True: Darren Aronofsky, director of Pi and Requiem for a Dream, is set to direct an adaptation of Nassim Taleb's bestselling economics book, The Black Swan. Natalie Portman will star. Next up: Martin Scorcese adapts Keynes' The General Theory of Unemployment, Interest and Money. (Just kidding. The second part, not the first one.)

A Smaller MySpace: The Murdoch-owned company is shedding 30 percent of its workforce.

A "More Diversified" Global Currency System: That's what the BRICs want. They're meeting this week in Russia. My guess is they offer up a couple ominous-sounding statements, but make little headway in terms of binding agreements to diversify their dollar holdings.

Laid Off? Start a Business: Over half of this year's Fortune 500 firms were started in a recession or bear market.

An Interview with Paul Krugman: "The risk of long stagnation is really high." Krugman has become very Cassandra-like lately but he has a Nobel Prize so we more or less have to listen to him.

Checkmate at the Yellowstone Club: The tale of the Montana ski resort for the ultra-wealthy is a familiar one -- reckless borrowing, the over-reaching of the rich, overpaying for property -- but the details are fascinating and well-told.

The Fed Calls the Shots: Should people who buy boats and snowmobiles be eligible for cheaper financing from the Federal Reserve?

The Real Victim of the AIG Bailout: Not the insured or the shareholders or the American taxpayer, but a 26-year-old track runner.

How Much Poorer Are You?: About 25 percent poorer, says Andrew Leonard. Americans have lost $14 trillion in wealth since the start of the recession in December 2007, mostly due to the decline of home prices, stock value, and pension funds.

The Elephant in the Room: BlackRock just became the world's largest asset manager by purchasing Barclays Global Investor. It now has $3 trillion under management.

It's the Economy, Mahmoud: As Iran gears up for its presidential election, the economy--not Israel, the nuclear program, or social freedom--is taking center stage. Critics say Ahmedinejad has focused on distributing wealth rather than creating it, and accuse him of fudging the numbers to make his record look better.

More Stress, Please: So you thought it was good news when you heard yesterday that 10 banks would be allowed to repay their TARP bailout money? Wrong, according to Elizabeth Warren. She released a simultaneous report questioning the government's figures and calling for new stress tests.

Going, Going, Gone: Russian central bank officials say they may move some of the country's reserves out of U.S. treasuries and into the brand new IMF bonds.

Remote No More: International brands are determined to tap into India's vast--and vastly undeveloped--rural market, even if they have to send out live entertainers to do their infomercials.

Not So Fast, Fiat: The Supreme Court put a hold on the bankruptcy sale of Chrysler to Italian carmaker Fiat, citing the objections of three Indiana state funds and consumer groups. Fiat says it's in it for the duration, but the delay could put the ailing car giant at risk of going out of business.

Oy Vey, Eastern Europe: Israeli companies, heavily invested in Eastern European markets, are facing bankruptcy risks as a result of the region's severe downturn.

The Wisdom of the '80s: Want a PPIP that works? Make it more like the RTC--the Resolution Trust Corporation--the public-private partnership charged with mopping up the mess left by the S&L crisis.

Today in Unexpected Recovery: Kazakhstan's economy has already hit bottom and headed back to growth. The prime minister told a government meeting chaired by the president that he has seen a "positive trend" since March.

Don't Regulate Me, Bro: Sifma's CEO says Wall Street has issued its mea culpas and is on board for the coming regulatory overhaul. Not exactly, counter Gillian Tett and Aline Van Duyn, reporting that the turf wars over the financial sector's brave new world are just beginning.

Not Out of the Woods: So much for the green shoots theory. This weekend was full of forebodingabout the future of the American economy, most pointedly with thisTimes op-ed critiquing Obama's confidence-restoring efforts as"dangerously misguided." (It's a must-read). This comes on the heels ofnews that PPIP, behind schedule and losing steam, might be doomed. 

Left in the Dust: The center-right got a big boost in Europe today, winning major victories in the European parliamentary elections. Far-right and anti-immigrant groups also picked up seats. Turnout was at a three-decade low.

An Economical Mideast Peace Plan: Elsewhere in elections, moderates in Lebanon eked out a victory over Hezbollah in Sunday's parliamentary elections. To shore up support for moderation in the region, says one Al-Jazeera columnist, the West should allow Lebanon to join the WTO. Extremism's economic roots, he argues, should not be underestimated. In related news, the EU agreed last week that Russia should be allowed to join the WTO.

Investing in the Wild West (and East): Emerging markets were so five minutes ago. Now, investors are looking even farther afield to so-called "frontier" markets like Nigeria and Sri Lanka too unstable to garner "emerging" status.

Welcome Back to Work?: Job losses slow! Job losses slow! Unemployment in the U.S. grew to a staggering 9.4 percent, but the number of job losses--345,000--was the smallest since last September. Could the glimmers of hope be on the horizon? Er, nope, says Felix Salmon. Another Reuters guy, Christopher Swann, sees a double-edged sword in all the pay cuts.

The Bears and the Bulls: Why do markets continue to rally? Ed Harrison at RGE Monitor has three theories, two bearish and one bullish.

Lord of the Flies: Today brings us a new development in the UK expenses scandal meltdown. Finance minister Alistair Darling has apparently fought off Gordon Brown's attempts at an ouster, further weakening the prime minister's position amid a bold cabinet reshuffling and rising calls for his resignation.

Igor of Arabia: Russia has set its sights on the Arab world, positioning itself as a key trading partner with states eager to rekindle Soviet-era alliances. Russian and Arab banks are in talks over possible joint ventures. Meanwhile, Dmitri Medvedev warned Russians that it's "too early to open up the champagne" over a supposed bottom in the economic crisis.

New Worry of the Day: Interest: What happens when governments around the world spend themselves silly to fight recession? Interest rates go up, potentially tacking hundreds of billions dollars onto already swollen public debt. According to the Congressional Budget office, a decade from now America's outstanding debt could equal 82 percent of G.D.P., or just over $17 trillion. But the Asian tigers are apparently being much more responsible. "China, for example, is in a very strong position to pay for its stimulus,” said one IMF official.

Angela Goes Solo: Politicians rarely take on central banks in public, and when they do, even more rarely do they gripe that the banks are going too far. Not so yesterday, when German Chancellor Angela Merkel lashed out at central banks for moving away from an independent "policy of reason" in aggressively fighting the financial crisis. Given what we just learned about interest rates today, it's worth checking out the speech itself here.

Rethinking Colbertisme: Does France have a better economic model than its given credit for? The FT examines the French relationship with industry.

The Toothless Bond Vigilantes: When Treasury yields rose from a low of 2.1 percent to 3.5 percent last month, commentators thought it was a sign that "bond vigilantes" were pushing back against the U.S. government and its endless issuance of new debt. Not so, says Martin Wolf -- the rise in rates is actually a very good thing, and a sign that deflation fears are gone.

A Real Humdinger: As General Motors sheds its crappy assets, first on the chopping block is Hummer, maker of the gas-guzzling, military-caliber vehicle once favored by Paris Hilton and other celebs. Who's buying it? Why, China, of course! The idea of 1.3 billion people with access to an automobile that gets around 10 mpg can't bode well for the environment.

The Incredible Lula: When he was first elected in 2002, "the nation’s currency plummeted 60 percent, and its borrowing costs tripled to 24 percent." Now, despite the recession, his approval rating is 78 percent, higher even than Obama's, and the world's investors will be sad to see him go when his term ends next year. Not to worry -- whoever his successor may be, he's sure to continue Lula's sensible, centrist policies.

Your Taxpayer Dollars at Work: Felix Salmon points us to the new General Motors ad, which looks a lot like the old ones ("We're patriotic!") but with a new script, including lines like, "This is not about going out of business."

Does the DJIA Matter?: Amidst the cacophonous response to the General Motors, the Dow Jones company announced it was removing both Citigroup and General Motors from the Dow Jones Industrial Average, a weighted index of 30 leading stocks. The question, says, Felix Salmon, is who cares? The DJIA is chosen by the Wall Street Journal editorial board, for goodness sake. It's also completely unrepresentative (insurer AIG was replaced by food giant Kraft in September; Cisco gets GM's spot, for some unknowable reason) and weighted by stock price instead of market value. Dumb, dumb, dumb.

Still the One: Another high-ranking Chinese official comes out and says what we all know: the dollar isn't going away anytime soon. That's probably not much solace at the Treasury auctions that have been going so poorly recently.

Back to Basics: America is a nation of savers once again.

The Road to Bankruptcy: General Motors will follow Chrysler into bankruptcy this week. Check out the Financial Times' interactive graphic on the last decade of the company's history to see how it got here. Elsewhere in the salmon-pink pages, former Labor Secretary Robert Reich argues that what is bad for GM is bad for America.

Better Finance Through Natural Selection: How are the financial markets like elephant seals during mating season?

The 'Bond Vigilantes' Are Back: They're mad at the U.S. government, and wreaking havoc on U.S. Treasury auctions. Don't think you care? Well it affects everything from your mortgage to your bank interest rate.

Mr. Geithner Goes to Beijing: What should we expect from our Treasury Secretary's first trip to China. "Not much," says former IMF chief economist Simon Johnson.

Another One Bites the Dust: Not that it's unexpected, but General Motors will file for bankruptcy next week. The automotive giant will be split into a good bank and a bad bank, er, a good car company and a bad car company. If you have any doubt about where the power lies in these "surgical" bankruptcies, take note: GM's creditors hold onto the crummy assets, while the U.S. government will own nearly three-quarters of the new and improved GM.

Take a Peek at the Fed's Balance Sheet: Sexier words have surely been spoken, but this WSJ interactive graphic is nonetheless immensely helpful in understanding exactly how many risky assets Bernanke's Fed has added to its book.

Shop Till You Drop: Remember those stories about foreigners fleeing Dubai so fast they left their keys in their cars at the airport? Apparently they're leaving behind their unpaid credit card bills as well.

Law of Unintended Consequences, Lesson #3,428: Remember Geithner's plan for the government to partner with private investors and buy up toxic assets, cleansing the banks of their original sin? Yeah, looks like it might never happen, partly because no private investor wants to work with the government.

No Go on the Opel Deal: Emergency talks between German and American negotiators failed to produce a deal for GM's ailing European branch, despite lasting into the wee hours of the morning. But they did manage to slim down the competition among potential buyers: either Fiat or Magna will get the prize, once everyone can figure out who will foot the bankruptcy bill. (By the way, um, Happy Birthday Germany!)

The Retirement Chronicles: Worried about that 401K? Explore FT's interactive feature on the past, present, and future of pension plans.

Golden Parachutes, Back in Style: The CEO of one Virginia bank that accepted government moneyd has decided to retire early for $1.3 million in consulting fees. He'll be spending his newfound leisure time at the local country club, where his membership dues will be paid by--you guessed it--the bank. So much for TARP regulations.

Petrobras Not Quite Slick Enough: Brazil's giant national oil and gas company is under investigation for allegedly avoiding tax payments and awarding illegal contracts, among other sins. Lula's thoughts on the investigation? "Irresponsible" and "unpatriotic." Let's add "inconvenient" to that list.