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Pink Picks

Comment, analysis and other offerings from Tuesday’s FT,

Gideon Rachman on lessons from Mumbai
On the day I arrived in Delhi last September, terrorists had set off bombs in markets across the city. The receptionist at the Taj hotel told me that they were advising guests to stay inside to avoid danger. The hotel felt like a sanctuary from the chaos outside.

Editorial Comment: RBS being shrewd to be kind
It seems the only people in the UK who do not want to be homeowners are its bankers. The Royal Bank of Scotland’s decision to avoid repossessing houses and to be more lenient with its borrowers is prudent – many creditors who are currently in arrears will soon be able to repay.

Editorial Comment: Obama gambles on Hillary
Barack Obama’s foreign policy and national security appointments – Hillary Clinton as secretary of state, Robert Gates as defence secretary and James Jones as national security adviser – have won praise from the moderate centre of the Democratic party and even from many Republicans. So far, it is mainly those on the left of the Democratic party who are expressing doubts.

Philips Stevens: The police are out of control
The police are out of control. So is the government. We can only conjecture as to what possessed the senior officers who raided the homes and parliamentary office of Damian Green, the Conservative immigration spokesman. Yet their disdain for political process spoke eloquently to the authoritarian culture of our times.

Opinion: How to open credit channels
Alan Duncan, the shadow business secretary writes: Put simply, the recapitalisation scheme is failing in its main objective. The Conservatives supported the government’s strategy, because saving the banks was designed to save the real economy.

Lex on Cyber Monday
Following Black Friday when Americans lined up before dawn to hit the sales, Cyber Monday is the biggest internet shopping day of the year. And rush to the computers on Monday they did. Sadly, however, it was to hit the sell buttons on their share trading accounts, sending the S&P 500 tumbling 9 per cent and wiping out most of the gains from last week.

Interactive grahic
On which local UK authorities are most exposed to the credit crunch.
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