Comment, analysis and other offerings from Monday’s FT,
Clive Crook: Beware the crisis around the corner
The US economy is sickly, but the mood of impending doom has lifted, writes Crook. The response of US and other authorities to the emergency is unfinished business and needs continuing attention – but in 2010, if the crisis continues to ease, the danger is that politicians will relax and minds will wander from the need for new financial rules.
Ronnie Chan: The west’s preaching to the east must stop
While the world debates the future of its financial system, global rebalancing or even power shifts along five dimensions are quietly taking place, writes Chan, chairman of Hang Lung Properties, Hong Kong. Their implications are profound and may well lead to a more stable world.
Harold James: Unlearnt lessons of the Great Depression
We are puzzled by the length and severity of the financial crisis and its effects on the real economy, writes James, professor of history and international affairs at Princeton University. We are also mesmerised by the possibility of parallels to the Great Depression. But at the same time we are sure that we have learnt the lessons of the Great Depression. We assume that we can avoid a repetition of the disasters of the deglobalisation that occurred in the 1930s.
Matthew Slaughter: We cannot afford to spurn the emerging investors
Slaughter, associate dean and professor of management at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth, writes that if the government approves an attempt by China’s Geely to buy Sweden-based Volvo, it will become the latest in a series of acquisitions reshaping the global automobile industry.
Editorial comment: The baby boomers come of old age
This year marks the start of the decade when – if the penny has not dropped already – employers will realise they are not just dealing with an ageing workforce, but with an ageing workforce much of which will want to work on.
Lex on private equity in 2010
Jealousy used to ooze from the pores of investment bankers and management consultants every time a colleague announced his or her departure for a top private equity house. The past two years, though, have tipped such envy on its head. Access to debt, the stardust of private equity, has been curtailed, reducing the industry to a bunch of unemployed actors with plenty of talent, but no way to use it.
Markets Insight: John Plender – Return to risk differences and imbalances
There are times when forecasting the global economy is not a particularly taxing business. It requires little genius, for example, to see that the exceptional fiscal and monetary measures adopted worldwide in response to the recent debacle guarantee a return to global growth in 2010.
Lucy Kellaway: Good year for management guff
Every year at around this time I hand out awards for paradigm-shifting, best-in-class management guff. I had expected the 2009 Guff Awards to be a sorry affair, as the bullshit industry has been suffering its worst slump since the Great Depression. But as I went through my bullshit cupboard I was surprised and reassured by the quality of the material. Even in bad times, it seems, some managers can still push the envelope and go the extra mile. So, without more ado, I’m going to get on and hand out the prizes.