Chris webex conferences are only good for a limited audience, usually people connect and ignore hoping that someone else has picked up the ball, usually more prevalent if your on the edges of the issue.
In my opinion the problems that WebEx conferences have are the main issue combined with the inability to hear tone or see body language.
There are many conferencing tools out there, my preference google talk, does what it says on the tin.
As for the credit crunch, there is no credit crunch the $ is simply being re-valued and the saudis therefore put up their oil price to ensure they still get value out of the $.
This is very prevalent in India where salaries this year have to rise 25% to get them the same $ value as 6 months ago.
So
1. Meetings and people, not technology
2. No credit crunch, just a corection in the currency and housing markets
3. google talk