Comment, analysis and other offerings from Friday’s FT,
Samuel Brittan: A framework for economic stability
The reduction to 2 per cent and 2.5 per cent of the Bank of England’s and European Central Bank’s respective official interest rates may be historically unprecedented, but it is the least the two central banks could have got away with. Their measured step-by-step approach falls below the level of events and makes me wish that the US Federal Reserve were in charge of policy on the European side of the Atlantic as well.
Editorial Comment: Beating the crisis needs cooperation
Critical times require critical measures. First, governments around the world have torn up the rules for the financial system. Now, as the global economy slides into recession, central banks are adjusting monetary policy dramatically to catch up.
Opinion: Human beings are not mere selfish agents
Jesse Norman, author of Compassionate Economics, writes: The twin perils of financial crisis and economic recession have caused politicians and regulators alike to tear up the rule book in recent weeks… As we look further ahead, however, the crisis has also shown that we cannot ignore the need for a drastic revision in the public understanding of economics itself.
Analysis: Negative territory
A look at the real economy across western Europe – talking to people involved in typical activities in some of the largest countries – shows the occasional defiant insistence that certain lines of business will be more resilient than others. But the dominant mood is one of uncertainty about the future, accompanied by a large degree of pessimism: as the recession deepens, 2009 is thought likely to be a miserable year for many companies, large and small, as well as for those who find themselves no longer working for them.
The Short View: Bracing credit markets
The credit crisis is widely held to have begun in July last year. That was when the market for debt instruments backed by subprime mortgages cracked, starting a chain of reactions that is still going on.
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