Comment, analysis and other offerings from Tuesday’s FT,
Niall Ferguson: Why a Lehman deal would not have saved us
If only. If only Lehman had been saved, there would have been no credit crunch. No near-Depression. The S&P 500 would not have sunk to 682 (its nadir last March). We would probably be back to 1,500 by now.
Gideon Rachman: China makes gains in its bid to be top dog
When I last visited the Pudong district of Shanghai, in the mid-1990s, it was a ramshackle area of factories and warehouses. Last week, I found it transformed into a forest of neon-lit, modernist skyscrapers. China has shrugged off the global recession and should grow by 8 per cent in 2009.
Philip Stephens: Coyness trumps candour in spending debate
There are lies, damned lies and arguments about public spending. Of one thing, Britain’s voters can be certain: whatever is said by the politicians before the coming general election it will understate the pain to be felt afterwards.
Editorial Comment: Zimbabwe’s plight
The massively devalued Zimbabwe dollar has effectively ceased to be a currency, replaced by US dollars and South African rands. The tentative recovery in economic activity — still only a fraction of its former level — should be encouraged.
Lex on trade tirade
All politics is local, even when it involves global trade. The imposition of US import tariffs on Chinese tyres less than a week after duties were placed on steel pipes brought a swift response from Beijing. But the posturing on both sides is mostly for the domestic audience and unlikely to escalate.
FT Money Supply Blog: The moral hazard anniversary
For all the fanfare over the Lehman anniversary today, it is two years since Mervyn King, Bank of England governor, lectured everyone on the evils of moral hazard in bailing out banks. Now buried on the Bank’s website, it makes fascinating reading, but not for the obvious reason that Mr King had to do all the things (and more) he criticised in September 2007.
Market Insight: Big ideas reap rewards
Byron Wien, vice-chairman of Blackstone advisory services, writes that perhaps it is easier to figure out whether a company’s quarterly earnings are going to beat the estimates of security analysts or whether the monthly unemployment rate will be higher or lower than expected, but he believes it is better to spend your time trying to think through important trend changes and then waiting them out.