According to the list of countries of the world sorted by their gross domestic product (GDP), These are the year 2007 figures, released by the World Bank.

1. United States
2. Japan
3. Germany
4. China
5. United Kingdom
6. France
7. Italy
8. Spain
9. Canada
10. Brazil
11. Russian
12. India
13. South Korea
14. Mexico
15. Australia

Every year since 1901 the Nobel Prize has been awarded for achievements in physics, chemistry, physiology or medicine, literature and for peace.

The 2008 Nobel prize winners in Economics has been revealed.

American Paul Krugman won the Nobel economics prize for his analysis of trade patterns and location of economic activity.

Krugman, neo-keynesian, is 55 years old and is a teacher at Princeton University. In his research he outlined those models where countries could make money from the imposition of protectionist barriers.

he island of Iceland might be the first country in “national bankruptcy” to follow in the steps of the credit crunch.

Iceland is all but officially bankrupt

People go bankrupt all the time. Companies do, too. But countries?

Iceland was on the verge of doing exactly that on Thursday as the government shut down the stock market and seized control of its last major independent bank. That brought trading in the country’s currency to a halt, with foreign banks no longer willing to take Icelandic krona, even at fire-sale rates.

With the government seemingly powerless to do anything about it, analysts said there was probably only one realistic option left: for Iceland to be bailed out by the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

Iceland Teeters On Bankruptcy

Iceland is getting closer to becoming the first nation to go bankrupt as a result of the subprime mortgage crisis and resulting squeeze on lending.

Also read :

• America’s Subprime Crisis - Timeline
• WALL- STREET IN PANIC - Lehman Brothers Collapses
• Washington Mutual Collapsed - Biggest in US History

[via -  iht , forbes ]

Neel Kashkari was designated as the Interim Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Financial Stability on October 6, 2008

He will head the Office of Financial Stability, in charge of the $700 billion U.S. Government Troubled Assets Relief Program which will buy troubled financial assets from U.S. financial firms.

TIME magazine quotes

The government’s $700 billion bailout plan is in the hands of this man

Personal Life

Kashkari (35), born July 30, 1973, is an Indian-American, from Stow, Ohio, where he attended Stow–Munroe Falls schools before transferring to the Western Reserve Academy in Hudson, Ohio, from where he graduated in 1991.

Kashkari’s parents, Chaman and Sheila Kashkari, are from Kashmir, India.

• Father Chaman has a doctorate in engineering, and won a Presidential award for his work in getting water to African villages.
• Kashkari’s mother, Sheila, is a retired pathologist
  His sister Meera, specializes in infectious diseases.
• He and his wife Minal live in Silver Spring, Maryland, with their dog Winslow.

Prior to joining the Treasury Department, Mr. Kashkari was a Vice President at Goldman, Sachs & Co. in San Francisco.

Prior to his career in finance, Mr. Kashkari was a R&D Principal Investigator at TRW in Redondo Beach, California where he developed technology for NASA space science missions such as the James Webb Space Telescope.

[ Reference - US Treasury, TIME ]