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Comment and analysis from Monday’s FT:

Lex: A short ruse among ‘creative’ banks
When buyers vanish from a market, sellers need to get creative. The banks have struggled to offload loans made to support LBOs during the credit boom. One of the latest ruses is to target alternative asset managers, lending them the cash to buy a portfolio of loans at steep discounts to face value. But it looks like little more than window dressing as it represents an imperfect transfer of risk.

Video: View from the Top: Chip Mason, Legg Mason
Legg Mason’s chairman and former CEO talks to the FT about stepping down as chief executive, saying it was the right time, and discusses the Fed, the credit crunch, commodities and Bill Miller – as well as Legg’s acquisition of Citigroup asset management.

Lina Saigol: Banks and capital raisings
The rules of the UK Takeover Panel should be applied to banks and their capital-raising plans. But capital raisings are not policed by the panel. They are the responsibility of the UK Listings Authority, which is part of the FSA - and that pretty much says it all.

Tony Jackson: The pensions drama is for real
It now seems unarguable that the ogre of inflation is back. Time, therefore, to consider some less obvious implications – such as pension funds. A year ago, it could have been argued that the damage done to pensions by the equity bear market of 2000-03 had been essentially contained. It now looks more like the prologue to the drama proper.

Analysis: What next for Wall Street?
The havoc wreaked by the credit crunch on the US financial services sector has left Wall Street at a historic juncture, write US business correspondents Francesco Guerrera and Ben White. As US banking leaders pick through balance sheets devastated by billions in mortgage-related losses and try to salvage their credibility with shareholders, they face decisions that could shape the industry for years to come.

Comment: The euro’s success could be its downfall
It is not easy being the world’s main currency, and the euro is showing all the signs of strain that comes from being the new international key currency, writes Harold James, professor of history at Princeton University and author of The Roman Predicament (2006).

View from the Markets: Lombard Street’s Diana Choyleva
The Lombard Street Research economist says the credit crisis has given the clearing banks an advantage over their non-clearing rivals. She also discusses with capital markets editor Gillian Tett the ins and outs of the Libor debate.