U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet, former central bank officials and head economists all met in Jackson Hole, Wyoming over the weekend, one year since the start of the financial crisis that has led to more than $500 billion in losses and writedowns, to discuss how prevent such a collapse from happening again.

Unfortunately, it seems that an agreement could not be made on how to do so.

One of the main debates was how much responsibility for financial stability should be placed on the shoulders of the central banks, as well as how much help should be offered to struggling firms.

Trichet and Federal Reserve Governor Frederic Mishkin both defended the central banks and their results over the past year. Meanwhile, former Bank of England policy-maker Willem Buiter argued that the central banks' enthusiasm in assisting investors in trouble was "unhealthy and dangerous", and presented a paper saying that the Federal Reserve had been too quick to assist financial institutions.

Nevertheless, all participants were in agreement that a change in the system was forecoming, despite not agreeing on its form. One thing that all participants were united on was the fact that the crisis was not yet over and that ongoing turmoil was expected in both the housing and banking sectors.

In an interview with Bloomberg on Aug. 23 in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, European Central Bank Governing Council member Yves Mersch said that in the coming weeks, the ECB would be announcing changes to rules governing the central bank's money-market auctions. The purpose of the rule changes would be to prevent the risk of financial institutions abusing the system.

Led by energy and refined oil costs, Spanish producer price inflation accelerated to a high of 10.2% year-over-year in July. Economists had expected a more modest jump to 9.3% after June's rate shot to 9.0%. On a monthly basis, Spanish PPI jumped 1.4% in July, more than three times the 0.3% gain expected. June had seen producer prices rise 1.1% in monthly terms.

The Swedish trade surplus grew to SEK 9.4 billion in July from June's SEK 9.0 billion level, a press release from Statistics Sweden said. Meanwhile, June's figure was revised up from a previous surplus reading of SEK 8.2 billion.

Despite expectations of a marginal improvement Danish sentiment, Statistics Denmark reported that its consumer confidence indicator fell even further in August to -12.2. The consensus forecast had called for a slight rebound in the indicator to -8.0 for the month after it slipped to -9.6 in July.

The Estonian external trade deficit rose to EEK 3.6 billion in June from EEK 2.9 billion one month ago, a press release from Statistics Estonia said. However, in annualized terms, the trade deficit fell EEK 632 million from June 2007's EEK 4.2 billion level. Compared to the same month one year ago, Estonian exports fell 1.0% in June, up from the 2.0% decline seen in May, while imports contracted 5.0% following the previous month's 11.0% drop.

Speaking in Osaka, Bank of Japan Governor Masaaki Shirakawa said the risks of second-round inflation were low in Japan and that overall monetary conditions in the region were accommodative. The central banker also said that longer-term interest rate were in line with fundamentals and that there was no need for additional funding operations before Sept. 30.

On the geopolitical front, U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama selected Delaware Senator Joe Biden as his vice-presidential running mate.

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