The G-8 summit starts today in L’Aquila, Italy. The G-8 are the old guard: US, UK, Germany, France, Italy, Japan, Canada and Russia. And their opinions are starting to look a little redundant in the aftermath of the credit crisis.

Simon Mellon, who’ll be heading up Bonner & Partners Family Office, our soon-to-be-launched money management and tax optimization service, is keeping in close contact with Notes HQ. 

The feud between authorities in China and Google Inc. (Nasdaq: GOOG) escalated Wednesday night when Chinese users were blocked from Google’s global Web site for a period of at least two hours.

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) raised its growth outlook for industrialized countries for the first time in two years and said the United States would experience a quicker recovery than Europe.

Markets were in the dumps yesterday with more broken bones than a wrestling match at the retirement village.  On Wall Street, the thirty blue chip names comprising the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 2.35%, or 200 points.

The World Bank yesterday (Monday) lowered its growth forecast for the global economy and warned about a long and painful recovery in developed economies, underscoring the recent supposition by many analysts that a three-month rally in U.S. stocks has been overdone.

States on the brink… hard numbers on another crisis yet to come… Chris Mayer on a recent energy crossroads, centuries in the making… The end of an impressive streak… popular commodity rises for 54 days in a row… Commodities and stocks sell off… Rob Parenteau on what’s gotten into Mr. Market… Plus, Dan Amoss on the credit crisis: Can the free market be blamed?

The economy continued to show signs of recovery from the worst recession in 60 years as the total number of Americans receiving unemployment benefits dropped for the first time since January, the Labor Department reported yesterday (Thursday).