Comment, analysis and other offerings from Friday’s FT,
Phillip Stephens: Crisis? What Crisis? The resurgence of capitalism
Pace the doomsayers who predicted imminent Armageddon, liberal market capitalism has survived: somewhat humbled and, in the case of the financial services industry, under much tighter official supervision, but recognisably much as it was.
Market Insight: Ringmaster of British finance rediscovers its muscles
Writes the FT’s Gilliant Tett: For most of the 20th century, the Bank of England viewed itself as akin to the Ringmaster General of British finance, charged with promoting order and good behaviour. Or to use another analogy from my days working as an anthropologist near Afghanistan, the Bank often acted like a tribal village elder (or mui safed, “grey beard”), adept at pulling on strings and exerting informal power. But in the past decade, the bank hung up its whip (or grey beard).
Lex on Ken Lewis
Whether or not Ken Lewis is suffering from Stockholm syndrome, as one congressional wag lightheartedly suggested during his committee grilling, he is in a tight spot. He faces questions over his judgment, integrity and competence but is reluctant to endanger relations with his regulators (and benefactors).
Let us roll out the euro to the whole Union
Write Marcin Piatkowski and Krzysztof Pybinski: We call on the EU leaders to show leadership and launch a “big bang” euro area expansion to introduce the euro in all 27 member states by 2012. Such a bold decision would give a credibility boost to the enlarged eurozone, accelerate replacement of the dollar by the euro as the global reserve currency and breathe new life into a united Europe.
Samuel Brittan: It’s time to put Europe on hold.
The 43 per cent of the European Union electorate who bothered to vote for the European parliament clearly did so on national issues. We still need to reflect on the EU itself.
Analysis: Outmanoeuvred
Chinalco’s rejection by Rio Tinto following protests in Australia will deter Beijing and its already wary state companies from making big offers abroad.
Legal trade barriers must be kept in check
Despite the repeated calls by heads of the G20 nations to prevent an outbreak of protectionism in the wake of the current crisis, many member countries have charged ahead with protectionist measures anyway, write Jagdish Bhagwati and Arvind Panagariya of Columbia University.
Lombard: the cost of the London tube strike is less than feared
If you live outside London, you won’t need much encouraging to think that Londoners protest too much when their capital-centric world is upset. But apart from the obvious toll on commuters’ patience and shoe leather, how much has the Tube strike actually cost?