Comment, analysis and other offerings from Friday’s FT,
Martin Wolf: Is the UK once again the economic sick man?
Is the UK once again the economic sick man? Or is it, as Alistair Darling, chancellor of the exchequer, argued in his Budget speech on Wednesday, just one of a number of hard-hit high-income countries? The answers to these questions are: yes and yes. The explanation for this ambiguity is that the fiscal deterioration is extraordinary, but the economic collapse is not.
Opinion: We must keep at the process of repair and reform
The outlook is challenging, but we have not been idle, writes Timothy Geithner, US Treasury Secretary. Earlier this month in London, leaders of the Group of 20 nations adopted a common strategy to restart global growth and secure international financial stability for the future. Our task in Washington is to keep at this process of repair and reform.
Gillian Tett: Finger of blame points to shadow banking’s implosion
The real source of the current credit crunch is not a collapse in bank loans, but the implosion of the shadow banking world.
John Authers’ Short view: Green shoots in housing
The US housing market matters to almost everyone - even people who do not want a property in the country. Stabilising house prices could help to draw a line under the troubled assets on banks’ balance sheets, and hence under the financial crisis.
Lex: BofA and Merrill
It is a clear failure of the financial infrastructure when the attorney’s office, Fed, Treasury and chief executive of one of America’s biggest banks are all publicly pointing fingers.
Opinion: How to avoid creating a new lost generation
The most imaginative measure in this week’s Budget was the youth guarantee writes Lord Layard of LSE and Paul Gregg of Bristol University. Starting next January, everyone unemployed for over a year and under 25 will be offered a job or training.
