Comment, analysis and other offerings from Wednesday’s FT,
Martin Wolf: Why Obama’s conservatism may not prove good enough
The more the crisis unfolds, the more evident it is that incentives in the financial system were (and are) badly distorted. I sympathise with the conservative approach to crises, but not if it leaves in place the plethora of perverse incentives that created them.
America’s triple A rating is at risk
David Walker, chief executive of the Peter G. Peterson Foundation and former comptroller general of the US, writes how a shadow, in the form of a warning from a top credit rating agency that the nation risked losing its triple A rating if it did not start putting its finances in order, is coming back to haunt the US.
A head start for India’s next prime minister
Aravind Adiga, author of The White Tiger’, won last year’s Man Booker Prize, writes how visitors to India are dazzled by the chaos and unpredictability of life here, but those who observe its politics are bewildered by the opposite.
John Kay: Expenses have caught MPs with their pants down
Many MPs plainly believed that since there were rules on what they could claim, any claim within these rules was legitimate.
Editorial comment: US returns to its trust-busting roots
In finance, antitrust investigators should be investigating whether the US banks’ remarkable profit margins in past years stem from weak competition – as they should have done before.
Lex on the matter of helping Germany’s bad banks
At last, a “bad bank” law to cleanse the country’s lenders of an estimated €850bn of toxic assets has been drafted. Sadly, it does not look as though it will work.
John Gapper’s blog: Prepare for the doldrums in global business
It is hard to imagine this emergence from recession being faster – indeed, there are lots of reasons to think that it will be slower.
The Short View: The return of an appetite for risk
Nowhere is a return of an appetite for risk more apparent than in corporate credit, a critical sector that was slower than almost any other asset class to show signs of confidence.