Comment, analysis and other offerings from Monday’s FT,
Clive Cook: America can square its fiscal circle
American voters want more public services than they are willing to pay for, writes the FT’s Crook. That is the country’s fiscal problem in one sentence. When it comes to public finance, the “live now, pay later” mentality that caused the economic collapse still prevails. Figures show a strengthening recovery in the last quarter of 2009. Welcome as that may be, even a sustained expansion cannot balance the books in the longer term. On current policies, the permanent gap between spending and revenues is at least 6 per cent of output.
Wolfgang Münchau: What the eurozone must do if it is to survive
First Greece, then Portugal, and then what? The project of European monetary union is entering the most dangerous phase in its 11-year history, writes FT columnist Münchau. Greece will probably require a bridging loan at some point. Portugal might too. But they are small countries. No matter what happens, it will not break the euro.
Lucy Kellaway: Memory doesn’t matter when you have the net
Last Wednesday, I arrived at the office to find I’d left my keys at home so could not lock up my bike. Later, I interviewed Lord Browne over lunch and afterwards couldn’t find the tag I had been given for my coat. And then, on the way back, I started drafting the interview in my head and missed my stop on the tube.
Interview: Gorman aims to strike a balance
At the end of a month of frayed nerves on Wall Street and rancour over US banks in Washington, James Gorman, Morgan Stanley’s new chief executive, appears as unflappable as ever. Since succeeding John Mack at the helm of Morgan in January, the 51-year-old Australian has sought to convince employees, clients and shareholders that the bank has emerged from the most challenging period of its history with a renewed sense of purpose.
Book review: Financial crisis served up with relish
After two and a half years of relentless financial pounding, the crisis literature is becoming mountainous. To command the weary reviewer’s attention, any new book on the aberrations of the financial community has to have a clear focus and make a compelling case. In Too Big To Save? Robert Pozen, chairman of mutual fund group MFS Investment Management and a former vice-chairman of Fidelity Investments, pulls off the trick.
Analysis: South Africa – Out of the Bottle
In 1979, when Standard Bank published Pioneer Bank in a Pioneer Land, the title of the corporate history had a distinctly nostalgic feel. South Africa’s largest bank – then an offshoot of Standard Chartered of the UK – might have spent much of its early days breaking new ground as it followed Cecil Rhodes and other gold diggers around Africa. But by the end of the 1970s it was on the defensive, labouring under economic sanctions and heavily reliant on its domestic market.
Lex on currencies
As recently as New Year’s Eve, Americans needed six of their famous quarters to buy one less-iconic euro. In a month, however, US coins have rallied by almost a 10th. But this is not a dollar story. In the past fortnight it has hardly moved against the yen or on a trade-weighted basis. The real pressure is on the euro as concerns grow, primarily about Greece but also Portugal, Ireland and Spain.