FTAlphavilleFT Alphaville is a 2008 Webby Award Winner

• News
• Markets Live

Comment and analysis from Friday’s FT:

Gillian Tett: The ins and outs of a ‘lemming fall’
Imagine you’re a banker, eyeing a juicy new instrument called the “lemming” that you could sell to retail clients - for a fat profit. However, this product looks risky. Would you go ahead and approve the sale of lemmings - even if investors don’t understand the risk? The results of an informal poll on this question are surprising.

Willem Buiter’s Maverecon: Inflation
Inflation here, there and everywhere: What is inflation? Who or what causes it? And why is it rising almost everywhere?

Comment: David Rothkopf on the financial superclass
Elites cede power only reluctantly and there are signs of an effort to stave off the beginning of the end of the golden age, writes Rothkopf, author of Superclass: The Global Power Elite and the World They are Making. By recognising there are public interests to which they must respond, the financial superclass can stall the fate of previous elites – but they must shun their arrogant “leave-it-to-the-market” explanations for the inequality they have helped foster.

Martin Wolf: Britain must not cut loose its anchor
Tougher times loom ahead for the UK. That is the lesson of the latest inflation report from the Bank of England. Interest rates may stay where they are for the next two years, even though the Bank’s monetary policy committee expects a sharp decline in growth. So be it. The country must bear it.

Online Q&A: Bonds, inflation and the eurozone economy
Investors have sought out bonds as a safe haven during recent volatility on equities markets. But as stock indices start to rebound amid the feeling that markets are nearing the end of the credit crisis, what are the prospects for European bond yields? Elwin de Groot, senior market economist at Rabobank, will answer questsions on Monday. Post one now to ask@ft.com.

Oil I: Editorial comment: Convene an oil summit
The inexorable rise in the oil price, from below $20 to $126 in less than a decade, makes governments look powerless. But governments can ease the economic harm of a high oil price – if they act together. In order to do so they should put oil at the heart of the next Group of Eight summit, or even better, organise a wider summit to bring together industrialised countries, big emerging market oil consumers and large oil producers.

Oil II: The Short View: Gold vs oil, the counter-argument
An ounce of gold will now buy only seven barrels of oil. Ten years ago, it could have bought as much as 26 barrels. Does this mean gold is too cheap?, asks John Authers. Both are dollar-denominated inflation hedges and tend to move in the same direction over time. But counter-arguments suggest there is no reason for a stable relationship. Text version here.

Oil III: View of the Day: ‘Real’ oil prices
Although high oil prices might no longer be deemed newsworthy, it’s still a shock to see the “real” oil price at record levels, says Ian Harnett at Absolute Strategy Research. The main question for both the bond and equity markets is whether real oil prices normalise through the nominal oil price falling, or oil price pressures passing through into more generalised inflation.