With investors trying to figure out the most likely direction of stock markets, the US dollar, government bonds, commodities and gold attracted a fair bit of attention - also from the producers of this week’s video footage.

Commentators in the selection below include Josh Rosner, Byron Wein, Stephen Jennings, Paul McCulley, Ed Yardini, Doug Kass and David Rosenberg.

The compilation kicks off with Congressman Alan Grayson uttering some harsh words at The Big Picture Conference - Capitalism After Crisis & Recession, and concludes with a fun ditty - a Wild Life Boogie, AKA The Economy Song.

Yahoo Finance, Tech Ticker: Cost of Fed expansion of balance sheet is $30K per American

“Those were just some of the harsh words Congressman Alan Grayson of Florida had this morning regarding Washington’s handling of the financial crisis so far. His remarks were part of The Big Picture Conference - Capitalism After Crisis &

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The IMF has said Russia 'urgently' needs a plan to deal with bad loans and has cut its forecast for growth from 6.5% to 6%.  Russian banks may need around $41 billion for recapitalization in 2009.  Renaissance Group CEO Stephen Jennings is positive on the recession: 'I think in a year's time for Russia it's going to be like this crisis never happened'.  Russian stocks have surged as UBS predicts a 30% rally for shares.  The Times scrutinizes the powers that lie behind Sberbank and GAZ.  GAZ could begin production of Opel cars in as little as nine months.  Changes are underway at Rosneft, which imply that current President Sergei Bogdanchikov may be on the way out.  China has begun a probe into imports from Novolipetsk Steel, suggesting that the company may be practicing ...

span style="font-weight:bold;"Financial Newsbr //spanbr /February 2 2009br /br /Jason Corcoran in Moscowbr /br /Renaissance Capital has parted company with two executives, Richard Olphert and Rory Cullinan, in a second round of job cuts at the Russian emerging markets investment bank, according to people with knowledge of the situation.br /br /The Moscow-headquartered bank, run by New Zealander Stephen Jennings, has been cutting costs and retreating to its core Russian market following the sale of a 50% stake in the business last year to billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov.br /br /A Renaissance spokesman declined to comment on the departure of Olphert, chairman of Renaissance’s private equity arm and a leading shareholder. The bank confirmed Cullinan, hired as deputy chairman of Renaissance Partners from private equity firm Permira Partners in August 2007, had left before the start of this year and the private equity team had been pared back to eight from a staff of ...

Financial NewsJason Corcoran in Moscow28 October 2008 Russian state bank VTB is defying the global downturn and dismal domestic markets by opening new sales and representative offices for its investment banking arm in New York and Dubai.Yulia Chupina, the VTB board member responsible for the expansion of its investment banking subsidiary, said the bank would open offices shortly in the US and Dubai.She said: "We are being cost conscious by freezing hiring and development in some areas while continuing to develop in other areas."VTB has already established three investment banking hubs in Moscow, London, and Singapore. It has dominated this year's hiring war in Russia by recruiting bankers from Deutsche Bank and key figures from a number of banks in Moscow.In response to the crisis, the bank said it was considering cutting costs by between 15% and ...

Financial NewsJason Corcoran in Moscow 13 October 2008 Many holdings are up for saleOligarchs on opposing sides of the cash crisis are set to trigger a boom in merger and acquisition activity in Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States.Cash-tight tycoons are being forced to sell holdings to meet pending margin calls while their rouble-wealthy counterparts are sizing up distressed assets affected by the liquidity crunch.Oligarch Oleg Deripaska had to sell a stake in Canadian auto parts maker Magna to meet a $1bn (€734m) margin call while Ukrainian billionaire Kostyantin Zhevago was forced to sell a large stake in Swiss-based ore miner Ferrexpo worth $180 in order to meet a margin call by JP Morgan.Analysts are predicting Deripaska, who has $28bn, may have to divest further holdings in his Basic Element investment vehicle to shore up his finances….

Business New Europe Jason Corcoran in Moscow September 25, 2008The experience of enduring Russia's last financial crisis in 1998 was burned into the psyche of Stephen Jennings when he opted on September 22 to sell half of his investment bank Renaissance Capital to billionaire oligarch Mikhail Prokhorov. Forsaking the bank's treasured independence was a tough call for its chief executive, but better than facing the prospect of teetering towards extinction as it did in 1998 when the Russian government's default reduced Renaissance to a shell and forced Jennings to slash the headcount to 190 staff, from 650. "We have a large shareholder base, a great team in place and 1,500 employees in the bank. We could have run the gauntlet and I think we would have made it, but we didn't know what was ...

Financial News OnlineJason Corcoran in Moscow22 September 2008 Russian investment bank Renaissance Capital has given up its much vaunted independence after selling a 50% stake to billionaire client Mikhail Prokhorov for $500m (€342m) amid the worst market falls in Moscow since the 1998 financial crisis.Renaissance and the Onexim investment vehicle owned by Prokhorov, who made his money from metals and banking, will buy new equity amounting to 50% of the brokerage for $500m, with the old shareholders retaining a one-share voting majority.The deal follows a week when market turmoil drove domestic indices down by 25% in just three days and forced another brokerage KIT Finance to agree to sell a controlling stake Leader Asset Management, the pension fund manager of energy giant Gazprom.A Moscow spokesman for Renaissance said the deal had been in the pipeline for ...