Comment, analysis and other offerings from Monday’s FT,
Clive Crook: Obama is choosing to be a weak president
As he promised, Barack Obama has brought climate change and healthcare reform to the centre of the nation’s attention, writes Crook. He has everything it takes to be a strong president. But he is choosing to be a weak one.
How China sidestepped the banking crisis
It is not easy to be a regulator in China, and even more difficult to be a good regulator, notes Liu Mingkang, chairman of the China Banking Regulatory Commission. Despite “remarkable progress”, the Chinese banking sector still confronts Herculean tasks, he warns - in a year that will undoubtedly be a tough one for China’s economy.
The Fed must reassure markets on inflation
The Federal Reserve must be careful not to tighten too soon, writes Martin Feldstein, professor of economics at Harvard University. But it also needs to reassure markets that it will prevent the excess reserves of the banks from financing a surge of inflationary lending when the economy begins to expand.
Analysis: In search of the exit
As attention turns to how to unwind emergency measures, much depends on how the American and eurozone recoveries develop.
Lucy Kellaway: Time to stop the age comparison game
After turning 50, the FT’s Kellaway realised it was time to end her obsessive playing of the “age comparison game”. And as if to prove the point, she says, “I woke up on my 50th birthday to find out that Michael Jackson — born precisely 10 months earlier than me — was successful no more. He was dead”.
Lex on moving averages
Looking at moving averages is certainly a useful tool for smoothing out volatility and observing longer-term trends, notes Lex. But history is one thing; having predictive power is quite another. Investors should remember that all trading techniques sometimes work and sometimes they do not.
Wolfgang Münchau: Germany and France should sing in tune
For the sustainability of the euro, you surely do not want to get into a position where a large member state has a rational economic reason to quit, says Münchau. So if Germany and France really do what they both promise - or threaten - you may as well start the egg timer.
FT Video: View from the Top with Peter Weinberg of Perella Weinberg
Weinberg, founding partner of investment bank Perella Weinberg, talks to the FT’s Chrystia Freeland about Obama’s financial regulation plan, advising FDIC and representing Chrysler bondholders
Lina Saigol: Xstrata’s merger double trouble
Three little words in M&A are guaranteed to make investors break out into a cold sweat: merger of equals, notes Saigol. That hasn’t stopped Xstrata’s CEO Mick Davis from whispering them into the ear of his counterpart at Anglo American, Cynthia Carroll. He is wasting his time. Mergers of equals are the toughest deals to pull off.
Tony Jackson: Buffett and other blows to efficient market theory
Having banged on about the failings of efficient market theory for some time, Jackson is “slightly miffed” by the recent spate of articles taking the same tack. So in the spirit of contrariness, he says, “let me turn the question round. What’s so wrong with efficient market theory, anyway?”
