The Observer: Observer Business, Media & Cash

MPs to launch inquiry into whether trillions of dollars flowing through secretive tax havens have created the conditions for the current global financial instability

WPP, the advertising giant led by Sir Martin Sorrell, is this weekend mulling a possible £1bn-plus bid for Taylor Nelson Sofres. By Richard Wachman

Taylor Wimpey likely to see hundreds of millions of pounds wiped off value of its land banks when it gives a trading update this week

Fewer homes to change hands this year than ever before, as borrowers struggle to find an affordable mortgage

Shareholders urged to recoup losses by selling their entitlement to subscribe for new shares in its £4bn rights issue

Iraq to unveil its first licensing round since the war ended over five years ago

Oil companies, haulage firms and motorists braced for possibility of further fuel strikes

Winner in the oligarchs' war for control of the world's largest nickel producer to be unveiled

Insurers could be stung for up to $60bn in claims related to the credit crunch, warns US insurance broker

European Central Bank poised to raise interest rates on Thursday

Cable & Wireless trying to hammer out eleventh hour deal with rival telecommunications group Thus

Power plants not fitted with expensive carbon capture and storage equipment in future will have to close, regulators say

Fair play and pay for Equitable victims | The B&B party's better without a gatecrasher

Radio station Jazz FM will be relaunched later this year. By James Robinson

The bank's chairman, Rod Kent, has enraged shareholders by selling them short on one deal, then scuppering another, says Heather Connon

UBS could lose its licence in America after an official confessed to illicit tactics that helped clients avoid the Revenue. Nick Mathiason reports

Fears are growing that HBOS may be over-exposed, says Nick Mathiason

The high street chocolatier needs to beat off a new breed of upmarket brands, says Zoe Wood

Scores of lucrative mining concessions handed out by President Joseph Kabila are in doubt after a report questioned their legality. Will a programme of renegotiation finally allow a beleaguered nation to exploit its huge mineral wealth? Nick Mathiason reports

Foreign firms keep the country afloat but prop up Mugabe, says Tim Webb

Pharmaceutical manufacturers want a crackdown on the practice of buying cheap medicines to re-export at a higher price, a trade that creates shortages in countries such as Greece - and, arguably, allows in dangerous counterfeits. Oliver Morgan reports

Buying British is top of the QIA's agenda, says Richard Wachman

William Keegan: Already there have been prime ministerial hints that the interest rate should be lowered

Simon Caulkin: Targets lead to a regime that is not just uncaring and uncompassionate - it is systematically so

Lakshmi Mittal's £30bn empire wants its own coal and iron ore deposits, writes Richard Wachman

In newsrooms across America scores of writers and editors are being laid off as publishers reel from the impact of the internet. James Doran reports

A string of scoops has made PR Week the envy of Fleet Street's political reporters, says James Robinson

Peter Preston: Always beware when a big firm of solicitors gets involved in a case where big firms of solicitors are strictly surplus to requirements

Peter Preston: What gives local newspaper editors pain? The thought of Ofcom letting the BBC spend £68m of licence fee money on setting up hyper-local internet video sites

Peter Preston: Hire Boston Consulting to tell you how to organise your mini-empire and they naturally ask a first, vital question. Who do you want to be in charge, sir?

Peter Preston: Don't take any old survey off the shelf. Take a brand new one commissioned by the Newspaper Society for consumption by newspaper editors, advertisers and readers. Then smile, darn you, smile.

THE SCENE: a tasteful, wooded corporate retreat north of Seattle. The time: one day last March. A large group - mainly chaps in their mid-forties - stands around. They seem to be in quite a state. Here's how one described the scene:

A longevity plan could be the answer, but some experts says it's a gamble, writes Sally Hamilton

In brief: Follow a better track with the Co-op | Comparative help to protect your payments | Grow your investment at the Post Office

Jill Insley: Mortgage lenders such as GMAC and GE Money have specialised in lending money at high interest rates to those who can't or don't want to reveal their incomes when applying for mortgages

Failing to clear your credit card balance can mean that only 62p left outstanding brings a demand for more than £60. Helen Pridham explains

Lisa Bachelor on the growing anger over internet short-term lenders

Huma Qureshi explains the ins and outs of the Islamic home loan market

Gated estates with communal facilities are set to become commonplace - but are they just glorified nursing homes? Laura Latham reports

In a flat market, sellers are making desperate offers to get a buyer, but price remains the crucial factor, writes Graham Norwood

Housing pricewatch: East Midlands. England's 'forgotten region' consists of low-key counties such as Northamptonshire, and mid-size towns and cities such as Leicester, Nottingham, Chesterfield and Derby

An increase in the tax-free threshold for over-65s is proving counterproductive. But there is a way out

A rising number of analysts think that now could be a good time to start putting money into the American market

Margaret Dibben, writing wrongs: Even if you don't owe anything, have never heard of the companies involved and the debt collectors are not sure who they are chasing, not responding only makes matters worse

New restrictions have cost a charity its blue badge, reports Lisa Bachelor