Russian president Vladimir Putin’s announcement on Thursday of a temporary ban on grain exports led to the latest in a series of runs on grain prices on global commodities exchanges over the past few weeks.

Wheat prices on the CME in Chicago have risen almost 80 percent over the past month. For companies in the food production industry, the question is what impact it will have on hedging programs.

Banks' arguments against stricter capital reserve requirements seem to be getting a hearing from regulators such as Tim Geithner and the Basel Committee, but a recent paper suggests they should not.

This was alluded to in a blog today by Simon Johnson over at the Baseline Scenario, but the relevant passages are worth reading.

With News Corp announcing this week a new compensation framework aimed at better-aligning executive incentives with shareholder interest, it once again brings into sharp focus the changing nature of executive compensation in the US—changes being pushed both internally at the board level and from policy-makers.

News Corp, owner of the Wall Street Journal and Dow Jones & Co, has filed with the SEC plans to offer performance-based bonuses in the coming year to executives—including CEO Rupert Murdock, head of European and Asian operations James Murdoch, COO Chase Carey, and CFO David DeVoe.