Comment, analysis and other offerings from Thursday’s FT,
The hidden cost of giving away vaccines
Giving products away free, from browsers to newspaper articles, is commonplace in the technology and media industries. The trend has now spread to vaccines.
Lex: US regulatory reform
The 90-page white paper on US regulatory reform has something for everyone – to argue over, that is. Bickering was inevitable. But the proposals are a comprehensive, nuanced attempt to elucidate a new structure for regulation.
Insight: New order still needs the dollar
Any reform of the international monetary system is likely to aim at restoring greater symmetry between the economic and monetary spheres, writes Ouseng Madeng, head of public sector investment advisory, Ashmore Investment Mgt and a former IMF deputy division chief. This will increase the demand for emerging markets currencies.
Editorial comment – Not quite yet a house of Brics
The Brics, which represent 15 per cent of the world’s economy and 40 per cent of its population, are not exactly united. Yet it would be wrong to be cynical. The Brics are right to demand a greater say in bodies where Europe is over-represented; and they are right to suggest alternatives to the world’s overdependence on dollars.
Lombard: For Chinalco, revenge could be a dish best eaten cold
The time is evidently not yet ripe for Rio Tinto’s management to book its Nixon-in-China breakthrough visit to Beijing, says Lombard. Even if Wednesday’s warlike comments by a Chinese official about the “monopolistic” proposed joint venture between Rio and BHP Billiton carry little weight – they are a fair indication of the temperature: still red-hot.
The Short View – equity markets
It feels like equity markets are on a cusp, where they may power on, or again relapse, writes Jamie Chisholm. Will a rash of new supply favour the latter? There is a view that we stand at the start of a great re-equitisation – fewer buy-backs, more sales – and there has been in recent months a perceptible evolution in investors’ attitudes to fundraisings.
Kenneth Rogoff: America should also look to its fiscal health
America desperately needs a better framework for providing healthcare and Barack Obama’s administration is right to press on for change, even as the economy remains frail in (it is to be hoped) the aftermath of the financial crisis, writes Rogoff, professor of economics at Harvard. Yet given the explosion of the federal debt, it is crucial to craft a plan that will not excessively risk the government’s own fiscal health. The risks cannot easily be overstated.
Analysis – the car industry, back on the road?
For anyone who has been following the industry’s near collapse in recent months, its comeback from its annus horribilis seems downright surreal, writes the FT’s auto industry correspondent John Reed. All the aid and bail-out money has preserved jobs in carmaking, still the linchpin of many industrial economies. But the money has also prevented a necessary shake-out in an industry that has long had too many producers.
Tech blog: Why you’ll need a bigger, faster iPhone
The “S” in the new iPhone 3GS, which goes on sale on Friday, stands for “Speed”, writes Chris Nutall. It could also stand for “Storage” and “Souped-up Software.” The “S” has double the memory, a faster processor, compatibility with higher-megabit networks and up to 32 gigabytes of storage. And it may need every bit of this new horsepower and space.