The London Borough of Barnet plans to provide "no-frills" public services after studying the business models of low-budget airlines EasyJet and Ryanair. Tony Travers, director of the Greater London group at the London School of Economics, says the council's radical ideas may provide a blueprint for a future Conservative government.
Business reporter Philip Inman looks at renewed pressure on world leaders to curb the excesses of the banks, after a call by Lord Turner, chairman of the Financial Services Authority, for a tough new tax regime.
Seventy years after John Steinbeck's Great Depression-set novel The Grapes of Wrath, Chris McGreal retraces the footsteps of the Joad family to study the effects of the current recession.
Rachel Williams visits Hackney in east London, where Mossbourne Community Academy - once branded the UK's worst school - is celebrating successful GCSE results.
And as G2 publishes a special edition focusing on archaeological digs, Martin Wainwright joins one at Vindolanda, a Roman fort town at Hadrian's Wall in Northumberland.
