Business Weekly - Cambridge, UK

John Barnes of Baker Tilly chartered accountants and Nicholas Cook of Wollastons Solicitors will be heading to Jiangsu Province in China later this month to brief Chinese firms and investors about investing in Essex, as part of Essex County Council’s Trade Mission.

The banks are in trouble, inflation is rising and growth is stalling. Companies are battening down the hatches and riding out the storm. Corporate finance activity has ground to a halt. Right? Well, actually, no.

A few years ago, an uncomfortably high default rate in a section of the US home loans market would have been of very little interest to the vast majority of people living outside North America. But today, in an interconnected financial world where banks parcel up parts of their loan books and sell on debt to other lenders and investors, the default problem has had obvious global implications.

In recent months, significant press commentary has been devoted to the credit crunch and economic forecasts of doom and gloom.