Comment, analysis and other offerings from Wednesday’s FT,
Martin Wolf: Narrow banking alone is not the financial solution
Under the concept of “narrow banking” as defined by fellow-FT columnist, John Kay, banks would be forced to hold assets as safe and liquid as their liabilities, notes Wolf. But could a financial system based on ‘narrow banking’ allocate capital efficiently, or would it shift the risks inherent in some bank activities elsewhere? One sure thing, the financial system is so inherently fragile that radical reform cannot be pronounced dead. It is only dormant.
The future of investing: John Plender – how to tame the animal spirits
As the shock of the Lehman Brothers collapse a year ago retreats further from public consciousness, some experts fear that a once-in-a-lifetime chance to put to rights the system of controls and strengthen investor protection is slipping away. Has enough been done to prevent a re-run of the biggest boom and bust since the 1929 crash?
Luke Johnson: The genuine nobility of manufacturing
Most intelligent entrepreneurs and executives desire to invest their work with meaning, writes Johnson. They like the idea of improving the world while earning a living. And many of us who mostly shuffle paper secretly admire those in the Hard Industries, who manufacture things, in spite of all the obstacles.
Gapper Blog: The billionaires of China’s green technology boom
Chinese technology companies are managing to combine the global demand for green technology with low-cost manufacturing to get ahead of their global rivals, writes John Gapper. So much so that one could reasonably ask whether China is becoming the Silicon Valley of the green world.
Lex on bank capital (1)
How much capital banks should have is one of the biggest questions around right now. Unfortunately, no one is quite sure of the answer. Here is the rub. Regulators want banks to be better capitalised. But how much better is essentially arbitrary. In the meantime, uncertainty reigns.
Lex on bank capital (2)
Six months ago, US Treasury secretary Tim Geithner promised “new rules of the game” for the financial system. Banks are still waiting, and the games continue. The former investment banks, having benefited from government support for the system as a whole, may well have to wear one-size-fits-all regulation. It is time to decide what that size will be.
Why the term ‘emerging markets’ no longer applies
The term “emerging markets” is obsolete, writes Marko Dimitrijevic, founder and chief investment officer of Everest Capital. They represent half of the world’s economy; their financial markets are large and liquid, with volatility, corporate governance and government policies very similar to those of developed markets. The traditional distinctions between emerging and developed markets, once pronounced, have disappeared.
Future of Investing, video: The ‘black box’ lives on
Leading ‘quant’ pioneer Donald Putnam of Grail Partners defends the use of computer-driven asset management in the wake of the global financial crisis.
Money Supply Blog on the hero in Hirohisa Fujii
Mr Fujii is blamed for stoking market unrest because he has made clear he sees an upside to recent yen “strength” and has no appetite for unilateral currency market intervention to weaken the currency. But there is something a bit heroic about Mr Fujii’s insistence that a round of competitive devaluations would be a disastrous response to the current global slump.