Policy makers around the world are “united in purpose” to restore confidence in the global financial system, but the threat of further turmoil remains, European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet said in New York on Monday. He signalled that further cutting of ECB interest rates is not necessarily the best path to recovery.

Principal news stories from the Irish Independent, Irish Times, Irish Examiner, Financial Times and New York Times.

Many of the largest US newspapers were again hit by circulation falls in the six months through March. Weekday circulation for 395 US papers accelerated to an average 7.1% from the same six-month period a year earlier, according to data released Monday by the Audit Bureau of Circulations. Sunday circulation for 557 daily newspapers was down 5.37%. Visitors to newspaper websites rose 10.5% in the first quarter.

US banks can currently borrow at close to zero from the Fed and easily make a profit. So Wall Street pay is returning to its normal stratospheric levels.

Deutsche Bank Research says as the economic crisis unfolds, some argue that customs duties are much less likely to be increased today than was the case during the Great Depression of 1929-1933. The general environment is said to be different today and so the crisis is correspondingly unlikely to be exacerbated by protectionism. Back then, global trade collapsed by two-thirds and the closing-off of markets turned a recession into a full-fledged depression. DBR says even though one can largely concur with the first argument, this does not mean that a worsening of the crisis to similar proportions can be ruled out entirely. Protectionism has many faces. Today, a subsidy competition could occur instead of the tariff-raising contest which materialised back then.

Mercer today welcomed the announcement this morning by the Minister for Social and Family Affairs of measures to alleviate the difficulties being experienced by defined benefit pension schemes. By providing annuities at lower cost, the pensions consultancy said the proposed State annuity fund (Pension Insolvency Payment Scheme) should significantly reduce the shortfall in the pensions that will be received by employees and former employees where their employer becomes insolvent and their pension scheme is in deficit.  However, social think-tank TASC Director Paula Clancy said that the limited pension changes announced by failed to address the fundamental problems facing the Irish pension system.

Markets news on stocks, currencies and oil.

Southeast Asia, one of the most vulnerable regions in the world to climate change, faces a poorer future unless global warming is controlled, says a new Asian Development Bank (ADB) study, titled The Economics of Climate Change in Southeast Asia: A Regional Review.

Markets news on stocks, currencies and commodities.

The Government plans to launch a new pension scheme designed to protect workers at failing Irish companies.