European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso today vowed to press on with stronger economic policy co-operation after today's "unprecedented" agreement to stabilise the single currency.

George Soros, one of the world's leading investors, believes the euro "may not survive" and has publicly declared that he is buying into gold – even though he says he considers it a "bubble".

Deutsche Bank will pay the Treasury £200m as a result of the one-off "supertax" on bonus pools. The company is the first major bank to put a figure on how much it will have to shell out as a result of the levy, which will be spread across its employees globally.

Red faces at Macquarie Bank, who provided Australian TV with an economist for a live comment on the Reserve Bank of Australia's interest rate decision yesterday. A hapless trader sitting behind the star turn opened an email just as the cameras began rolling. He got the pictures of the topless model off his screen fast, but not fast enough to avoid them being broadcast to the nation. You'll find the clip on YouTube.

A clear warning about the true health of the US economy and the state of US-Chinese economic relations has been issued by Larry Summers, President Obama's leading economic adviser.

The Conservative lead over Labour has slipped to nine points in the third poll this weekend to suggest the election could result in a hung Parliament.

Chancellor Alistair Darling said today that he was "confident but cautious" that Britain was on the path to a sustained economic recovery.

Outlook And so the fightback begins. You might say it was cowardly of the world's top bankers to wait until they had ducked behind the security barriers at Davos to come out swinging against regulatory reform, but until now no one has been prepared to put their head above the parapet. Strength in numbers was the feeling at the World Economic Forum yesterday, with a string of senior bankers speaking out.

The small village of Davos, hidden in the Swiss moutains, is once again to host the world's most spectacular private gathering of the masters of the universe; among the exclusively invited guests are 2,500 power brokers, including 30 heads of state, royalty, 1,400 executives and owners of billion-dollar enterprises, and at least 12 central bank chiefs.

To the National Business Awards at the Grosvenor House Hotel, where the Chancellor of the Exchequer was on hand to give out some gongs. No comedian as entertainment, but Mr Darling was happy to step in. With the taxpayer-owned Royal Bank of Scotland behind one of the trophies, the Chancellor ad-libbed: "I'm delighted to see my bank is sponsoring one of these awards". Someone liked it: the Chancellor was asked for his autograph during dinner.