Hong Kong topped the World Economic Forum’s 2011 index of financial market development, supplanting the U.S. and U.K. from the highest rankings for the first time. | Switzerland, the nation that hasn’t gone to war with a foreign power since Napoleon, is reluctantly debating a generational taboo: ceding monetary independence to win a battle over its runaway currency. | Europe’s central banks have all but halted sales of their gold reserves, ending a run of large disposals each year for more than a decade. | The euro will have broken up before the end of this Parliamentary term, according to the bulk of economists taking part in a wide-ranging economic survey for The Sunday Telegraph. | President Hugo Chavez urged supporters to use Twitter to blow the whistle on currency speculators on Sunday and announced that police raids on illegal traders would continue as Venezuela's government tries to defend the embattled bolivar. | A renewed selling frenzy gripped euro zone financial markets on Tuesday as concern mounted that a record EU/IMF bailout for Greece would not stop a debt crisis spreading in the single currency area. | Central banks with trillions of dollars in reserves that are already stepping up euro and yen purchases will likely continue doing so in coming years, driven by worries over the stability of the greenback. | The average diversified U.S. stock mutual fund has fallen 5.9% this year, vs. a 1.4% loss for the Standard & Poor's 500-stock index, says Lipper, which tracks the funds. Out of 8,036 funds, 7,399, or 92%, are showing a loss — and some are doozies. |