This week's Gazette has an international theme, with an exclusive account of the fascinating elite pow-wow that was the Global Managing Partners Summit 2010. And with western economies reportedly facing a new 'cold front' in the fourth quarter, we report on how the City behemoths are intensifying their efforts to exploit the fast-growing BRIC nations.

Would that it were as simple as setting up an office and flying out the young turks to muscle their way in. Local bars and different ways of working continue to present formidable obstacles. Indigenous practices are becoming more savvy too.

Macroeconomic developments are not helping either. With the global recovery weak, the 'Washington consensus' of unfettered free trade is creaking and protectionist pressures are growing. Brazil's finance minister recently warned that an 'international currency war' has broken out, for example. Economists have also drawn attention to the vain efforts of negotiators to conclude the Doha trade round negotiations and secure a global trade liberalisation agreement.

Still it's an ill wind... the Guardian has likened the tortuous talks to the case of Jarndyce v Jarndyce in Bleak House, which goes on for years, is utterly baffling and ends with nobody gaining a penny - apart from the lawyers, of course.