Ecomist Covers

The world this week...

Tens of thousands of people were feared to have died after an earthquake of magnitude 7.0 devastated Haiti.Schools, hospitals and homes in Port-au-Prince collapsed, as did the parliament building and the headquarters of the United Nations mission.

The assassination of a Tehran university professor, Massoud Ali-Mohammadi, sparked conflicting accusations of guilt. The Iranian authorities blamed America, Israel and an Iranian pro-monarchist exile group.

The European Commission condemned irregularities in Greece?s budget figures, suggesting that the budget deficit might be even bigger than the 12.7% of GDP that the government has admitted to. The Athens stockmarket swooned, and a team from the IMF arrived to help.

Barack Obama proposed a new levy on large banks and financial companies to recoup the cost of the Troubled Asset Relief Programme. The fee will be structured to take account of a bank?s liabilities and will hit investment banks with few deposits harder than retail banks with larger such holdings.