Comment, analysis and other offerings from Monday’s FT,
Clive Crook: Obama took wrong turn on health
Many who are sceptical about the Democrats’ plans have asked intelligent questions. But this is too dull for prime-time, and before you know it, intelligent questions bog you down in complex details. Better to make the protests the story.
Iceland’s debt repayment limits will spread
Michael Hudson, professor of economics at the University of Missouri writes that resentment is growing not only towards the banks that ran up the debts but also towards the foreign advisers and creditors who put pressure on these governments to sell off the banks and public companies to insiders.
Global economic council should oversee all
Timothy Adams, former US Treasury undersecretary for international affairs, and Arrigo Sadun, an IMF executive board member, write the Group of 20 and Group of Eight leading nations should be transformed into a global economic council (Gleco) to oversee the proper functioning of the global economy and the stability of the international financial system by providing close political support and strategic guidance to all international financial institutions.
Watchdog’s failure to act on lost savings says it all
Ed Vaizey, Conservative member of parliament, writes that the UK regulator has failed in the prudential regulation of the banking sector is now beyond doubt. But the other side of the coin is the FSA’s failure to ensure basic consumer protection, or to stand up for consumers when things go wrong.
Editorial comment: Closing the havens
Supporters of bank secrecy have wrung their imaginations dry in coming up with ingenious defences for secret accounts. The very real fear of kidnapping in places such as Latin America is one of the few good reasons that might justify allowing the rich to hide their wealth. But for the most part opacity simply helps to evade taxes.
Lex on US sugar
The US sugar market is something of an oxymoron. It is a tightly sewn web of restrictions, with caps on what domestic producers can annually sell, import quotas, and a government loan programme keeping US prices high.
FT Video: Stephen Jen on the recovery
The managing director of macroeconomics and currencies at BlueGold Capital tells the FT’s Jennifer Hughes the current period economic recovery is ‘for real’ and could last for another year.