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The global economic crisis made financial news the lead for mainstream news programmes as Â鶹Éç World Service revealed the full global picture.

It was the biggest financial and economic meltdown since the Great Depression. Â鶹Éç World Service correspondents analysed the background and implications for audiences in every region and language as the global financial crisis unfolded.

"Â鶹Éç World Service worked closely with Â鶹Éç World News television and the international online site to present a coherent picture of the economic crisis across all three platforms," says Liliane Landor, Editor News and Current Affairs.

"We asked correspondents in each country to show how people were suffering from the recession and what they were doing about it."

Insight from Â鶹Éç World Service Economics Correspondent Andrew Walker and Greg Wood, Â鶹Éç North America Business Correspondent, complemented Business Editor Robert Peston's high-profile analysis for the whole of the Â鶹Éç.

The business and economics department at Bush House provided specialist analysis to mainstream news programmes and language services in addition to the usual three-and-a-half hours of business news it produces every weekday.

Regular business output such as , the new , World Business Report and explored the impact in depth in every region of the world.

Flagship news programmes, and frequently led with exclusive interviews and special coverage.

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Early warning signals

Â鶹Éç World Service listeners first heard warnings of a recession as early as November 2007, when a former US Treasury Secretary told that the banking crisis would cause the American economy to start shrinking.

Business Daily listeners were warned of a stock market crash in May 2008, when investor George Soros told the programme he was betting on the markets going down.

In September, the US mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were taken over by the government. "September was the decisive month," says Andrew Walker. "When Lehman Brothers went bust everything followed from there. Large sections of the financial industry simply froze up".

"Making the story relevant to people who are not financial specialists and helping them to understand how it will affect them is an important part of our job," he says. "There is an enormous appetite from news programmes and listeners for us to explain what is happening in the financial markets and why it matters to the wider economy."

Coverage was extended at crucial moments.

When President Bush failed to get support for the US$700 billion bailout plan in September, Newshour responded with an extra programme.

World Briefing went live to the President's speech and reported on Republicans' reasons for voting against the plan.

World Today revealed different geopolitical angles and perspectives to the crisis, from the response of the Asian markets to the impact in Africa and the joy of Al-Qaeda over the West's financial problems.

"As the financial story unfolded we exposed and tested the intricate connections that link the world economy," says James Whittington, Deputy Editor, Business Programmes. "We followed the trail, from factory workers in China worried about losing their jobs because of a slump in orders from the United States, to Zambians who fear the economic impact of a collapse in copper prices."

Language services explored ways in which the economic crisis was affecting every region.

In Latin America, Spanish and Brazilian programmes focused on the emerging markets of Brazil, Mexico and Argentina, and their potential role, through the G20, in finding a solution.

"Protectionism was a key issue in our interview with President Lula of Brazil, which was a big headline on the day we launched the new Â鶹Éç Brazil internet site," says Americo Martins Dos Santos, Regional Executive Editor.

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Putting questions to Wall Street

Business Correspondent Steve Evans took the concerns of Middle America directly to New York's financial centre when he joined the Â鶹Éç Talking America bus on the final leg of its journey across the United States.

"Along the route, we'd asked people what they thought of Wall Street, and the answers ranged from accusations of greed to accusations of crime," he says.

"In the New York Stock Exchange I was told there was enough guilt to go round but guilt should not be confined to Wall Street. The country had lived on debt for 20 years."

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